Vin Diesel credits online fans for Fast & Furious casting

Actor Vin Diesel credits his Facebook.com followers with helping cast Fast & Furious stars Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Jason Statham in the blockbuster franchise.

The action man has been in the hit films since the first installment in 2001, and since then, he has garnered a loyal fan base, especially on his Facebook page, where he has more than 87 million followers.

Prior to filming Fast Five in 2011, Diesel decided to call on his fans to ask who they thought should star in the next film.

In an interview on chat show The Talk, he explained, "Before Dwayne ever came on for Fast Five, there was a girl named Jan Kelly who wrote a comment (on Facebook) and said, "I would love it if you and Dwayne were in a movie together - can he be in Fast?'"

Diesel added, "Initially the role that he plays was written for a Tommy Lee Jones type, and after hearing that and the studio getting excited about it, he became Hobbs."

Since the experiment worked so well, the actor turned to Facebook once again before Fast & Furious 6 in 2013.

He said, "During Fast 6, I asked, 'Who would you like me to work with?' and more people said Jason Statham than any other name. So we tried to get him into 6, but we didn't have a complete script so he was right to say, 'I can't join.'"

Instead, the Fast & Furious team later asked the British actor to film a cameo in London that would be tagged into the end of the film.

Diesel said, "I remember taking the cast out to dinner after I watched Jason film his cameo, and they said, 'Why are we going out?'

and I said, 'We're celebrating - that cameo has guaranteed us the opportunity to tell the seventh chapter."