Idris Elba cast as villain in Dwayne Johnson's 'Fast and Furious' spinoff

July 6 (UPI) -- Idris Elba has been cast as the central villain in Universal's upcoming Fast and Furious spinoff titled Hobbs and Shaw that stars Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham.

Johnson confirmed the casting on Twitter Thursday where he welcomed Elba to the long-running action franchise.

"He's a baaaaaad man. Welcoming my dude @idriselba with tattooed and open arms to our #HobbsAndShaw Fast & Furious spin-off movie. Every hero is only as good as their villain. Cue the music... let's dance," Johnson said.

"I promised we were going to make this Fast & Furious spin off awesome and grow our franchise properly. He's a bad man (legit bad ass). I better toughen up," he continued in a second tweet.

Hobbs and Shaw, set to hit theaters on July 26, 2019, will feature Johnson and Statham reprising their Fast and Furious franchise roles as Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw respectively. The Crown's Vanessa Kirby is also set to star.

The film is set to be directed by Deadpool 2 helmer David Leitch from a script by Chris Morgan who has penned six installments in the series.

Johnson is producing through his Seven Bucks Productions along with Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Statham, Morgan and Neal H. Moritz. Kelly McCormick, Steve Chasman, Amanda Lewis, Ainsley Davies, and Ethan Smith are executive producing.

Elba was last seen briefly in Avengers: Infinity War and helmed Sundance film Yardie. He will next be seen in an upcoming Netflix comedy series he created titled Turn Up Charlie.