Bengaluru, March 5: One of the most anticipated Hollywood movies of recent times featuring WWE franchise player John Cena has been delayed once again after Universal decided to postpone the release of the ninth installment of the Fast & Furious series named F9.

Originally supposed to be premiered worldwide on May 28, the movie will now be coming on June 25, instead. As reported by Deadline, this move has also consequently shifted another big release from universal Studios, Minions: The Rise of Gru for one long year. It is now slated to open in theatres on July 1, 2022, instead of the original schedule of July 2, 2021.

The source pointed out perhaps the delay will help the production house to get more audience as COVID 19 cases tend to decrease in the upcoming months.

"They’re still not open despite NYC reopening this Friday and Los Angeles expected to reopen in the near future as Covid cases decrease and vaccinations increase in the city. There is a chance as overseas markets do improve during the pandemic, that F9 could begin its theatrical journey abroad before domestic. All of that said, Universal is trying to have as many markets go at once for F9 as possible."

This is the second time that F9 has been pushed back. It was originally scheduled to release in May of 2020, but obviously, that didn’t happen amid the coronavirus pandemic which was ongoing in full force, back then.

F9 will mark John Cena’s debut in one of the most successful movie franchises from Hollywood who plays the main antagonist’s role, Jakob Toretto. He is also the brother of leading role player Vin Diesel’s Dominik Toretto character.

The Cenation Leader joined The Rock as a WWE Superstar who transitioned to the world of Fast and Furious. The Brahma Bull won’t be seen in the latest edition, ruling out the scope for the two former WWE Champions to share the screen. The Rock plays the role of Luke Hobbs who was last seen in the first spin-off of the franchise, Hobbs & Shaw, in 2019.

While John Cena’s big break in Hollywood has to wait for at least three months, he is gearing up to play the role of Peacemaker (a spin-off from Suicide Squad movie) for HBO Max. Currently, he is shooting for the same in Vancouver, Canada which is the admitted reason why he won’t be attending this year’s Wrestlemania.

While many fans find it hard to believe that Cena is missing Mania in his hometown of Tampa, Florida, the former world champion cited COVID protocols to be the reason for his absence. Here’s what he had to say on After the Bell Podcast about missing the Show of Shows for the first time since 2004.

“Because of the quarantine law, if I were to fly to the states for Sunday on WrestleMania — which is totally possible — the complications arrive when I come back to Canada. Because then I would have to quarantine for 14 days and that puts production back more than two weeks, which costs a boatload of money, and that would be super, super, super selfish of me.”