Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Hobbs & Shaw.

Hobbs & Shaw makes a clear reference to Jason Statham’s The Italian Job, which might make the movie canon in the Fast & Furious franchise. Hobbs & Shaw is the ninth Fast & Furious movie and is a spinoff from the main series story. The movie stars Statham as Deckard Shaw and Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs.

Hobbs & Shaw follows the titular duo (now just working as a two-man team away from the rest of the Fast & Furious crew) as they try to prevent a cyber-genetically enhanced criminal named Brixton (Idris Elba) from recovering a stolen virus which could harm all of humanity. Over the course of the two-hour movie, there are some notable callbacks and references to past Fast & Furious movies. Considering this is a spinoff, it makes sense this would happen in order to connect it to the larger Fast & Furious universe. But Hobbs & Shaw features a surprising reference to one of Statham’s previous movies which decidedly isn’t a part of this world: 2003’s The Italian Job.

Statham’s Italian Job is a remake of the 1969 movie of the same name starring Michael Caine. The remake co-starred Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Edward Norton and also falls into the category of car heist movies. Shaw’s reference to the events of a movie outside the Fast & Furious canon raises the question of whether we should consider The Italian Job as part of this universe. Does a casual reference make something canon? Here’s what we know about that big Italian Job tease.

Hobbs & Shaw Connects To… The Italian Job?

How does Hobbs & Shaw connect to The Italian Job exactly? Shaw’s reference to the 2003 movie happens about midway through Hobbs & Shaw. Hobbs, Shaw, and Shaw’s sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), need to regroup and figure out a way to get to Moscow. In order to do this, Shaw takes them to his flashy storage unit, located underneath the pub he owns, The Carpenter’s Arms. As the three enter into the work space, they all look at a row of cars Shaw has stored there. One of them happens to be a vintage Mini. As Vanessa and Hobbs take a look at the car, Shaw mentions he used it once for a job in Italy but he hasn’t really taken it out much lately.

Director David Leitch addressed how the Italian Job reference got in during an interview with Cheat Sheet, explaining, “I always hoped that that would get some traction and we could talk about it on online forums. Honestly, I’ll leave that open to everyone’s interpretation in what sort of mythology they want to put to it. For us, it was a sort of fun meta nod to the fact that Jason does a lot of car movies.” Since it’s Statham saying this line about a Mini and mentioning Italy, it’s easy to see the sly Italian Job reference right away. The Italian Job prominently features Mini Coopers as the primary getaway car as the team pulls off their heist in the final act. This connection between The Italian Job and past Fast & Furious franchise movies makes it easy to see why the reference would be made.

Can The Italian Job Fit Into The Fast & Furious Canon?

It’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility to include The Italian Job in the Fast & Furious universe. There is the slight issue of Shaw’s backstory, which doesn’t neatly match up with Statham’s Italian Job character, Handsome Rob. Assuming The Italian Job takes place in 2002 or 2003 when Handsome Rob was participating in the heist in Italy, Shaw was still a member of the British military; more specifically, he was a Major in the Special Air Service. Add to this the fact the Shaw isn’t exactly as skilled a driver as Handsome Rob is, and some problems arise.

There’s also the matter of Charlize Theron, who stars in The Italian Job alongside Statham and makes her first appearance in the Fast & Furious franchise as Cipher in 2017’s The Fate of the Furious. Theron plays Stella Bridger in The Italian Job. She’s a masterful thief trained by her career criminal father and specializes in cracking safes. Cipher is decidedly less analog in her criminal specialties. Instead, she’s achieved notoriety as the world’s foremost hacker and cyber-terrorist. It would require a big suspension of disbelief to say Stella somehow became a world-class cyber-terrorist in less than a decade - with no previous history of specializing in technology - and transforming into Cipher.

Even with issues in the backstories for Statham and Theron’s characters in both The Italian Job and the Fast & Furious franchise, it’s not entirely possible to rewrite some history to make it align better. The Fast & Furious franchise is no stranger to retconning, after all. Stranger things have happened in this franchise over the years. One particularly notable example is the whole Han storyline, which has already required some bending over backward from the franchise in order to make the character’s story work within the Fast & Furious timeline.

There’s One Italian Job/Fast & Furious Plot Hole

There is one plot hole in Shaw’s reference to The Italian Job in Hobbs & Shaw: The Mini he gestures toward is an older model than the one used in the 2003 film. The model Shaw owns would better fit with the original Italian Job from 1969 rather than the 2003 remake. Of course, Shaw nor Handsome Rob weren’t alive in 1969, let alone old enough to be a part of the heist. In Shaw’s case, this means he wouldn’t have been able to pull off the Italian heist that matches up with the Mini he currently keeps as a souvenir. All of these facts call into question if The Italian Job could really work within the Fast & Furious franchise canon.

Next: What You Need To Know About Hobbs & Shaw 2

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