'Deadpool 2' Director Plans to Build The Rock, Jason Statham's 'Own Universe' in 'Fast & Furious' Spinoff

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham are breaking from the rest of the pack for the film, which will be directed by David Leitch ("Atomic Blonde," "John Wick") and written by Chris Morgan, who's penned every sequel in the parent series since 2006's "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift."

Johnson teased the collaboration between him, Statham and the director on Instagram earlier this week, saying Leitch is "very talented and knows how to create and shoot bad ass, cool and FUN characters." Speaking with TooFab ahead of the release of his latest film, "Deadpool 2," Leitch said he's ready to get to work.

"We're excited about it, Dwayne's a great collaborator. Jason, I've worked with quite a bit in the past, so it seemed like something really fun to dive into," he explained.

"We really want to expand on Hobbs and Shaw's relationship, obviously, and their conflict," he continued. "We're looking to build out their own universe and sort of keep in the spirit of 'Fast' and all the things that people love about 'Fast,' but definitely give it its own identity."

Leitch added that it's "great" to be working with Morgan on the project as well. "We've been wanting to work on things for a while,' he said, "so this is good."

The movie is set to kick off production in September, with an August 2, 2019 release date.