Chinese action star Wu Jing and American action star Keanu Reeves could join future sequels of the "Hobbs & Shaw" series, the film's producers said in Beijing on Tuesday.

"Wu Jing is a good friend of mine, and he was supposed to be part of Hobbs' team as I have to go to him for help," Dwayne Johnson, leading actor and producer of the latest action blockbuster "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" told China.org.cn. He and his co-star Jason Statham, as well as the film's creative team, are currently in China on a promotional tour for the film.

Johnson revealed that the two men had discussed the idea a couple of years ago in United States when Wu visited him, and Wu was ready to get involved. However, due to a scheduling conflict, Wu finally found he couldn't make it.

"However, we have an opportunity for the sequel, and Wu knows I'm going to come to him. We are going to create his character and I look forward to working with him on the next movie and finish what we had intended to do. I can't wait. Just imagine what that would be like for the world -- Hobbs and Wu Jing, unstoppable!"

In March 2018, Johnson showed a photo of him and Wu meeting in Shanghai on the Sina Weibo micro-blog platform. "He's the biggest action star in China and holds the biggest box office record in China as well. The Wolf Warrior himself, WU JING! Great guy and good to chop up potential business with him," he captioned the photo. 

Wu, the action actor and director, starred in several of the biggest Chinese films in recent years, including the military action film "Wolf Warrior 2" (2017) and the sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth" (2019), grossing 5.68 billion yuan ($854 million) and 4.65 billion yuan ($690 million) respectively – occupying the first two places as highest-grossing Chinese films of all time.

Wu was not the only one who didn't make it to "Hobbs & Shaw," however; another big star, Keanu Reeves, also missed the opportunity.

"We had been in early talks because I worked with him and we are all his big fans," producer Hiram Garcia explained, "We were trying to find a place for him in this world and particularly this project. But he was doing a 'John Wick' movie, so the schedules didn't match up for what we needed him for."

The creative team once considered bringing him in during the shooting and post-production for a cameo appearance, "but ultimately, we didn't want to do a disservice to him, if his character wasn't big enough and thought well enough. Yet, we would love to actually work with him down the road. If we're going to introduce someone like him, we want to make sure that's right into its spot and we all feel good about it," Garcia said.

Script writer Chris Morgan who wrote eight installments of Fast & Furious franchise, added, "We are his friends, and we are his fans. We've been trying to get him into the franchise for a while. It's coming, it's coming."

Morgan also thanked Chinese fans and said he had toyed with the idea to shoot a Fast & Furious film in China, explaining, "We have to say the response that we get from the fans here is so loving and sweet and supportive. It's like nowhere else in the world. And we're very, very thankful. And frankly, we'd like to see, down the road, if we are able to do a giant portion or even the entire movie here in China."

"Hobbs & Shaw" is a spin-off of "The Fast and the Furious" franchise focusing on the two tough and unlikely allies Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, two rival characters introduced in the main series. 

It will be staggering cast if the film team manage to bring in Wu and Reeves, as well as allowing more room for Ryan Reynolds, already in this new installment in a cameo appearance as a CIA agent, to perform his action scenes in the next sequel.

Previous installments of "The Fast and the Furious" main franchise enjoyed phenomenal success in China. Particularly, "The Fate of the Furious" (2017) earned 2.67 billion yuan ($393 million) while "Furious 7" (2015) grossed 2.43 billion yuan ($390 million) respectively in the world's second-largest film market. They are also the second- and third-largest grossing imported films ever in China, just behind this year's new box office king "Avengers: Endgame."

"Hobbs & Shaw" will open in China on Aug. 23, 2019.

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