Director Justin Lin Reportedly Had “Major Disagreement” With ‘Fast X’ Star Vin Diesel Before Quitting

While you could argue that Vin Diesel‘s Dominic Toretto is the heart and soul of the Fast and Furious films, you could also argue that they didn’t become the worldwide phenomenon that they are until director Justin Lin joined the franchise and put his stamp on the films, transforming them from drag racing action flicks to impressive global heists that include often unprecedented stunts. When news broke at the end of April that Lin was quitting as director of Fast 10, the final movie in the franchise, it was a shock, since he has directed five Fast films, going all the way back to the third film, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.

The Hollywood Reporter now claims that Lin left the film after a meeting with Diesel on April 23rd, in which Diesel reportedly gave Lin notes on the script that Lin had penned, which then led to a “major disagreement.” After the meeting Lin reportedly said, “This movie is not worth my mental health,” and declared that he was done with it. By April 25th, his departure was made official and was publicly announced.

Director Louis Leterrier has since been announced as Lin’s replacement. Leterrier has worked on Clash of the Titans and Jason Statham’s Transporter films. Leterrier’s last feature film was the 2016 megaflop The Brothers Grimsby, and the Frenchman has been fighting to get released from director’s jail for most of the last decade.

Lin is not the first person that Diesel has scrapped with during his time making Fast movies. Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson famously clashed both on-screen and off, with Diesel trying to claim he was doling out “tough love” but the Rock was having none of it.

An insider explained that the process of replacing Lin on Fast X was no easy feat, as “You need someone who can play ball with the studio, Vin and the actors. You can maybe count on two hands filmmakers that can take on this challenge. Most filmmakers will file this under ‘Life’s too short.'” For Lin, it sounds like he took that to heart.