Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has responded to Vin Diesel's Instagram invitation for him to return to Fast & Furious 10 by saying that, not only is there "no chance" he would rejoin the franchise, but that Diesel's post was "an example of his manipulation."

Speaking to CNN, Johnson was asked if he was surprised by Diesel's post that requested he "must show up" for Fast & Furious 10 and "rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny."

"I was very surprised by Vin's recent post," Johnson said. "This past June, when Vin and I actually connected not over social media, I told him directly - and privately - that I would not be returning to the franchise. I was firm yet cordial with my words and said that I would always be supportive of the cast and always root for the franchise to be successful, but that there was no chance I would return. I privately spoke with my partners at Universal as well, all of whom were very supportive as they understand the problem."

He continued to say that Diesel's move was "an example of his manipulation" and that it was wrong for him to bring up Johnson's kids and Paul Walker's death in his public attempt to bring him back as Luke Hobbs once again.

"Vin's recent public post was an example of his manipulation. I didn't like that he brought up his children in the post, as well as Paul Walker's death. Leave them out of it. We had spoken months ago about this and came to a clear understanding. My goal all along was to end my amazing journey with this incredible 'Fast & Furious' franchise with gratitude and grace.

"It's unfortunate that this public dialogue has muddied the waters. Regardless, I'm confident in the 'Fast' universe and its ability to consistently deliver for the audience, and I truly wish my former co-stars and crew members the best of luck and success in the next chapter."

Johnson and Diesel's feud began in 2016 when The Rock called out an unnamed male co-star as a "candy ass." While their fight appeared to be over in 2019, Johnson publicly revealed earlier this year that he would no longer be part of the Fast & Furious family after Diesel made comments that he had to show Johnson "tough love" to get the performance they wanted out of him.

Johnson had been part of the Fast & Furious franchise since 2011's Fast Five and his final appearance in the mainline films was 2017's The Fate of the Furious. In 2019, he did return to his character for Hobbs & Shaw alongside Jason Statham.

The Dwayne Johnson-less Fast & Furious 10 will be released in theaters on May 19, 2023.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has responded to Vin Diesel's Instagram invitation for him to return to Fast & Furious 10 by saying that, not only is there "no chance" he would rejoin the franchise, but that Diesel's post was "an example of his manipulation."

Speaking to CNN, Johnson was asked if he was surprised by Diesel's post that requested he "must show up" for Fast & Furious 10 and "rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny."

"I was very surprised by Vin's recent post," Johnson said. "This past June, when Vin and I actually connected not over social media, I told him directly - and privately - that I would not be returning to the franchise. I was firm yet cordial with my words and said that I would always be supportive of the cast and always root for the franchise to be successful, but that there was no chance I would return. I privately spoke with my partners at Universal as well, all of whom were very supportive as they understand the problem."

He continued to say that Diesel's move was "an example of his manipulation" and that it was wrong for him to bring up Johnson's kids and Paul Walker's death in his public attempt to bring him back as Luke Hobbs once again.

"Vin's recent public post was an example of his manipulation. I didn't like that he brought up his children in the post, as well as Paul Walker's death. Leave them out of it. We had spoken months ago about this and came to a clear understanding. My goal all along was to end my amazing journey with this incredible 'Fast & Furious' franchise with gratitude and grace.

"It's unfortunate that this public dialogue has muddied the waters. Regardless, I'm confident in the 'Fast' universe and its ability to consistently deliver for the audience, and I truly wish my former co-stars and crew members the best of luck and success in the next chapter."

Johnson and Diesel's feud began in 2016 when The Rock called out an unnamed male co-star as a "candy ass." While their fight appeared to be over in 2019, Johnson publicly revealed earlier this year that he would no longer be part of the Fast & Furious family after Diesel made comments that he had to show Johnson "tough love" to get the performance they wanted out of him.

Johnson had been part of the Fast & Furious franchise since 2011's Fast Five and his final appearance in the mainline films was 2017's The Fate of the Furious. In 2019, he did return to his character for Hobbs & Shaw alongside Jason Statham.

The Dwayne Johnson-less Fast & Furious 10 will be released in theaters on May 19, 2023.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Update (12/29/21) - @FortniteStatus has confirmed that "Fortnite game servers are back online and the Winterfest continues!" Furthermore, it looks likes players will be getting a little something extra for the inconvenience.

"We appreciate everyone’s understanding as we worked to resolve these issues and we’ll have more details next week on what we’re doing to help you make up for lost time," The team wrote.

The original story follows.

Fortnite is currently down and Epic has confirmed it is investigating a solution to stability issues that led to the game servers being taken offline.

The Fortnite team shared the unfortunate news on its @FortniteStatus account on Twitter and promised to update players "as soon as more info is available."

Earlier today, Fortnite players began experiencing login, matchmaking, and other issues when trying to play the battle royale game, and the issues quickly became severe enough for Epic to step in and shut down the game as they worked towards a solution.

Server downtime is not uncommon during the holiday season, but it is yet unclear if this particular issue stemmed from an influx of players or something else entirely.

On Christmas Day, the Nintendo Switch eShop was having similar issues and players couldn't create Nintendo Accounts, purchase games, redeem gift cards, or even browse the online store.

We will update this article as soon as the servers are back online and, until then, be sure to check out all the goodies that are part of Fortnite Winterfest 2021, including outfits based on Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Fortnite is currently down and Epic has confirmed it is investigating a solution to stability issues that led to the game servers being taken offline.

The Fortnite team shared the unfortunate news on its @FortniteStatus account on Twitter and promised to update players "as soon as more info is available."

Earlier today, Fortnite players began experiencing login, matchmaking, and other issues when trying to play the battle royale game, and the issues quickly became severe enough for Epic to step in and shut down the game as they worked towards a solution.

Server downtime is not uncommon during the holiday season, but it is yet unclear if this particular issue stemmed from an influx of players or something else entirely.

On Christmas Day, the Nintendo Switch eShop was having similar issues and players couldn't create Nintendo Accounts, purchase games, redeem gift cards, or even browse the online store.

We will update this article as soon as the servers are back online and, until then, be sure to check out all the goodies that are part of Fortnite Winterfest 2021, including outfits based on Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Reddit's 2021 recap is out, and based on its data report it looks like Redditors really loved Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy 14, League of Legends, and Grand Theft Auto role-play in 2021.

The most-viewed community for the year was r/genshin_impact, followed by r/leagueoflegends, and then the general gaming hub r/gaming. In fourth place was r/rpclipsgta, a subreddit dedicated to "everything GTA [role-play] related," followed by r/ffxiv, which likely thrived thanks to the anticipation and ultimate release of the Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker expansion in December.

Related to GTA role-playing, Reddit's roundup notes that r/NoPixel -- a subreddit dedicated to a specific GTA RP server -- saw a 267% increase in views year over year. Other subreddits with massive spikes in 2021 included r/pokemonunite (with subscribers up a whopping 8,600% year over year thanks to Unite's launch in July), r/deltarune (subscribers up 328,000% thanks to a new chapter release in September) and r/biomutant (subscribers up 9,500% from last year).

As for top posts, the most upvoted gaming post of the year was entitled "boy gamer" and features a webcomic satirizing the experience of being a woman playing online games and having everyone in voice comms remark on it. Other top posts included the news that EA no longer has exclusive rights to make Star Wars games, predictions for Worlds 2021, a clip of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showing off her League of Legends play, and a meme about switching from World of Warcraft to Final Fantasy 14.

Unfortunately, there's not a great way to compare these stats to previous years, as Reddit didn't do a gaming-specific recap for 2020. We did get a few 2020 numbers suggesting that Animal Crossing was really, really popular (who knew!) and that other popular games on Reddit that year included League of Legends (again), Minecraft, Fortnite, and Destiny. In fact, the League of Legends subreddit seems to be a pretty popular place to be every year, as in 2019 it joined the Fortnite, Destiny, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft Classic communities in the top five.

Genshin Impact, meanwhile, appears to have thrived thanks to a simply absurd amount of updates over the past year, including tons of new characters, challenges, quests, and a whole new region in Inazuma. We nominated it for best ongoing game of 2021, and when we reviewed it back in 2020 we found it to be an "amazing open-world adventure that draws heavily on both its Breath of the Wild and anime inspirations to create something truly special."

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Reddit's 2021 recap is out, and based on its data report it looks like Redditors really loved Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy 14, League of Legends, and Grand Theft Auto role-play in 2021.

The most-viewed community for the year was r/genshin_impact, followed by r/leagueoflegends, and then the general gaming hub r/gaming. In fourth place was r/rpclipsgta, a subreddit dedicated to "everything GTA [role-play] related," followed by r/ffxiv, which likely thrived thanks to the anticipation and ultimate release of the Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker expansion in December.

Related to GTA role-playing, Reddit's roundup notes that r/NoPixel -- a subreddit dedicated to a specific GTA RP server -- saw a 267% increase in views year over year. Other subreddits with massive spikes in 2021 included r/pokemonunite (with subscribers up a whopping 8,600% year over year thanks to Unite's launch in July), r/deltarune (subscribers up 328,000% thanks to a new chapter release in September) and r/biomutant (subscribers up 9,500% from last year).

As for top posts, the most upvoted gaming post of the year was entitled "boy gamer" and features a webcomic satirizing the experience of being a woman playing online games and having everyone in voice comms remark on it. Other top posts included the news that EA no longer has exclusive rights to make Star Wars games, predictions for Worlds 2021, a clip of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showing off her League of Legends play, and a meme about switching from World of Warcraft to Final Fantasy 14.

Unfortunately, there's not a great way to compare these stats to previous years, as Reddit didn't do a gaming-specific recap for 2020. We did get a few 2020 numbers suggesting that Animal Crossing was really, really popular (who knew!) and that other popular games on Reddit that year included League of Legends (again), Minecraft, Fortnite, and Destiny. In fact, the League of Legends subreddit seems to be a pretty popular place to be every year, as in 2019 it joined the Fortnite, Destiny, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft Classic communities in the top five.

Genshin Impact, meanwhile, appears to have thrived thanks to a simply absurd amount of updates over the past year, including tons of new characters, challenges, quests, and a whole new region in Inazuma. We nominated it for best ongoing game of 2021, and when we reviewed it back in 2020 we found it to be an "amazing open-world adventure that draws heavily on both its Breath of the Wild and anime inspirations to create something truly special."

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Sony has announced that Persona 5 Strikers, Dirt 5, and Deep Rock Galactic are the PlayStation Plus games for January 2022.

Announced on PlayStation.Blog, these three games will all be available on Tuesday, January 4 until Tuesday, February 1, and are the first PlayStation Plus games for the new year.

Persona 5 Strikers, Deep Rock Galactic, and Dirt 5 are available with PlayStation Plus starting January 4.

Full details: https://t.co/ehw153oCPc pic.twitter.com/BLrE2Zh0vY

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 29, 2021

PS4's Persona 5 Strikers is a spin-off that stars Persona 5's Phantom Thieves and picks up just a few months after the end of the original game (sorry Persona 5 Royal fans!). Instead of featuring turn-based combat, the action in Persona 5 Strikers is focused on combo-driven hacking and slashing that is somewhat similar to a musou game, but not quite.

In our Persona 5 Strikers review, we said that its "main story is every bit the direct sequel to Persona 5 that it seems, making this summer road trip with the Phantom Thieves essential for fans of the original (and probably pretty confusing for anybody who hasn't played it)."

PS4 and PS5's Dirt 5 is the second game on the list and takes driving fans around the world for an "amplified off-road racing experience." Dirt 5 features 70 routes across 10 global locations and comes packaged with a full career mode, four-play split-screen, online multiplayer, a Playgrounds creator mode, and more.

In our Dirt 5 review, we said that it "represents a complete about-face for the main Dirt series, shedding virtually all semblance of simulation in favour of an unabashed, arcade-inspired racing experience that draws from just about every influence you can name except its direct predecessor."

PS4 and PS5's Deep Rock Galactic rounds out January 2022's PlayStation Plus trio and offers a 1-4 player co-op FPS experience that features "badass space Dwarves, 100% destructible environments, procedurally-generated caves, and endless hordes of alien monsters."

In our Deep Rock Galactic review, we said that it "is the best kind of four-player co-op game. Exciting combat, great missions, and lots of upgrades make this one a winner."

While you wait for these games to arrive, don't forget that you have until January 3 to claim December 2021's PlayStation Plus games - Godfall: Challenger Edition, LEGO DC Super Villains, Mortal Shell, The Persistence, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Standard Edition, and Until You Fall.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Sony has announced that Persona 5 Strikers, Dirt 5, and Deep Rock Galactic are the PlayStation Plus games for January 2022.

Announced on PlayStation.Blog, these three games will all be available on Tuesday, January 4 until Tuesday, February 1, and are the first PlayStation Plus games for the new year.

Persona 5 Strikers, Deep Rock Galactic, and Dirt 5 are available with PlayStation Plus starting January 4.

Full details: https://t.co/ehw153oCPc pic.twitter.com/BLrE2Zh0vY

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 29, 2021

PS4's Persona 5 Strikers is a spin-off that stars Persona 5's Phantom Thieves and picks up just a few months after the end of the original game (sorry Persona 5 Royal fans!). Instead of featuring turn-based combat, the action in Persona 5 Strikers is focused on combo-driven hacking and slashing that is somewhat similar to a musou game, but not quite.

In our Persona 5 Strikers review, we said that its "main story is every bit the direct sequel to Persona 5 that it seems, making this summer road trip with the Phantom Thieves essential for fans of the original (and probably pretty confusing for anybody who hasn't played it)."

PS4 and PS5's Dirt 5 is the second game on the list and takes driving fans around the world for an "amplified off-road racing experience." Dirt 5 features 70 routes across 10 global locations and comes packaged with a full career mode, four-play split-screen, online multiplayer, a Playgrounds creator mode, and more.

In our Dirt 5 review, we said that it "represents a complete about-face for the main Dirt series, shedding virtually all semblance of simulation in favour of an unabashed, arcade-inspired racing experience that draws from just about every influence you can name except its direct predecessor."

PS4 and PS5's Deep Rock Galactic rounds out January 2022's PlayStation Plus trio and offers a 1-4 player co-op FPS experience that features "badass space Dwarves, 100% destructible environments, procedurally-generated caves, and endless hordes of alien monsters."

In our Deep Rock Galactic review, we said that it "is the best kind of four-player co-op game. Exciting combat, great missions, and lots of upgrades make this one a winner."

While you wait for these games to arrive, don't forget that you have until January 3 to claim December 2021's PlayStation Plus games - Godfall: Challenger Edition, LEGO DC Super Villains, Mortal Shell, The Persistence, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Standard Edition, and Until You Fall.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Could Norman Reedus be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ghost Rider?

The Walking Dead star has long been suggested as a potential Ghost Rider – a motorcycle stuntman who has been bound to the Spirit of Vengeance and has gained supernatural powers. Now, it looks as though Reedus himself might be interested.

A recent Twitter post seems to suggest he’s at least thinking about it.

https://t.co/ziUr5gl2qc

— norman reedus (@wwwbigbaldhead) December 28, 2021

As well as the above tweet, in which Reedus links to a fan-made image of himself as the Ghost Rider, he’s also been liking a lot of tweets from the fans which suggest him for the role of Johnny Blaze.

Additionally, Giant Freakin Robot reports that Norman Reedus has already signed up for Ghost Rider, and will be joining the MCU. The folks at Giant Freakin Robot have a good track record breaking exclusive movie news over the last couple of years – confirming that Ryan Gosling had been cast in the upcoming Barbie movie, among others.

And Reedus himself isn’t shy about his comic book aspirations.

During an interview with ComicBook.com earlier this year, Reedus revealed that he would love to join the MCU as Marvel’s Ghost Rider.

“I want to play Ghost Rider," he confirmed. “The Ghost Rider conversation has been coming up for years, and yeah, tell them to put me in it.”

Ghost Rider was last played by Nicolas Cage in the non-MCU (and critically panned) films, Ghost Rider (2007) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011). And while it’s unlikely that we’ll see Cage return in the role, Ghost Rider could be a great addition to the MCU. Even if we have seen the character recently in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

After all, with Sony bringing Morbius to the big screen and Marvel working to relaunch Blade with Mahershala Ali, there’s definitely a place for the more supernatural antiheroes such as Ghost Rider to appear alongside them.

Whether or not Reedus lands the comic book role remains to be seen. But it looks as though he’s still interested, at least.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Could Norman Reedus be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ghost Rider?

The Walking Dead star has long been suggested as a potential Ghost Rider – a motorcycle stuntman who has been bound to the Spirit of Vengeance and has gained supernatural powers. Now, it looks as though Reedus himself might be interested.

A recent Twitter post seems to suggest he’s at least thinking about it.

https://t.co/ziUr5gl2qc

— norman reedus (@wwwbigbaldhead) December 28, 2021

As well as the above tweet, in which Reedus links to a fan-made image of himself as the Ghost Rider, he’s also been liking a lot of tweets from the fans which suggest him for the role of Johnny Blaze.

Additionally, Giant Freakin Robot reports that Norman Reedus has already signed up for Ghost Rider, and will be joining the MCU. The folks at Giant Freakin Robot have a good track record breaking exclusive movie news over the last couple of years – confirming that Ryan Gosling had been cast in the upcoming Barbie movie, among others.

And Reedus himself isn’t shy about his comic book aspirations.

During an interview with ComicBook.com earlier this year, Reedus revealed that he would love to join the MCU as Marvel’s Ghost Rider.

“I want to play Ghost Rider," he confirmed. “The Ghost Rider conversation has been coming up for years, and yeah, tell them to put me in it.”

Ghost Rider was last played by Nicolas Cage in the non-MCU (and critically panned) films, Ghost Rider (2007) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011). And while it’s unlikely that we’ll see Cage return in the role, Ghost Rider could be a great addition to the MCU. Even if we have seen the character recently in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

After all, with Sony bringing Morbius to the big screen and Marvel working to relaunch Blade with Mahershala Ali, there’s definitely a place for the more supernatural antiheroes such as Ghost Rider to appear alongside them.

Whether or not Reedus lands the comic book role remains to be seen. But it looks as though he’s still interested, at least.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.