John Cena Explains The Very Specific Way His F9 Role Was Kept Secret

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John Cena explains the very specific thing he had to do to keep his F9 role a secret during production. At long last, Fast & Furious 9 has made its way out into the world. The latest installment of the high-octane franchise was supposed to debut last year, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed it to 2021. After rolling out in select international markets over the past few weeks, F9 made its North American debut this weekend, and it is poised to break records for the pandemic-era box office.

F9 features the returns of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew as they face off against a new threat. In keeping with the franchise's usual themes of family, their biggest enemy this time is Dom's estranged brother Jakob (Cena). The WWE star joined F9's cast in 2019, but his character wasn't revealed until the first trailer arrived in early 2020. Fans were stunned to learn Cena would be playing another Toretto, particularly since Dom never acknowledged having a brother. F9 explores their family history and just why they're estranged.

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Naturally, those working on F9 wanted to keep Jakob's existence a secret. While talking to Digital Spy about the film, Cena explained the biggest thing he had to do on set to hide his character. The "one definable" thing about his character is his Toretto cross necklace, so Cena had to be mindful of when he wore it. He said:

"After every take, take it off, hide it, give it to someone. The costumes are the costumes and they can be whatever you needed it to be, but if there was ever a candid with a coffee in my hand and the cross, that's a dead giveaway.

"It's amazing that that one piece of jewellery has so much energy and gravity around it. That was the one thing I put on before they said roll and as soon as they said cut, I would take it off, and that was how we kept everything under wraps."

It helps that, as Cena pointed out, the costumes themselves don't reveal much. However, if someone spotted him on set with that cross around his neck, it would've been game over. Fast & Furious fans know the significance of that necklace, and they would've been alight with theories. Instead, everyone was taken by surprise with the first F9 trailer arrived, which also confirmed the return of Sung Kang's Han Lue. Cena clearly did a good job with monitoring his cross-wearing.

There are two more movies slated to bring the Fast & Furious franchise to a close, and Cena has stated he would happily return for them. Plot details for Fast & Furious 10 and 11 are still being kept under wraps, so it remains to be seen if he actually will. That depends entirely on the story director Justin Lin and Diesel have come up with, as well as Jakob's fate at the end of F9 (no spoilers here). Still, if F9 proves to be the only franchise outing Cena gets, at least he gave it his all and protected the surprise of his character's identity.

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