Vin Diesel cast John Cena in Fast and Furious live on Instagram without him knowing

Vin Diesel cast John Cena in Fast 9 on his own Instagram page, without his knowledge.

I don't know about you, but when I imagine a Hollywood casting process, I imagine days and weeks of auditions. I picture read-throughs, call-backs, and, finally, the ecstatic moment of discovering you do indeed have the coveted part of Second Fluffy Duckling in the latest Oscar-bait blockbuster.

But it seems my image of this process could be a little mistaken following a revelation about WWE legend John Cena's casting in the ninth installment of the Fast and Furious saga. Rather than the long-winded procedure I visualised, it transpires that Cena was in fact informally offered a role by Vin Diesel during a live stream on his Instagram page.

In an interview with Josh Horowitz, the host asked about about the casting process for the movie.

Cena said: "I don't know what led to the meeting. I got a notification that Vin wanted to get together and I said sure. It wasn't about the movie it was just Vin Diesel wants to meet you, those things don't happen often!

"I said yes, and I met him at his dojo where he trains. In comes Vin and it was surreal, Vin actually posted live after we met. We talk about life, philosophy, nothing about the movie.

"Then he just goes live on Instagram, and he has like 60 million followers so it's pretty much like okay kid you're on.

Instagram / @vindiesel

"He's really going off inviting me into the movie. I hadn't been given a formal job by anyone at Universal, but I'm in the movie apparently, because I have Vin Diesels's blessing. I didn't say a word the whole video, I was just sitting in the corner! He made the video and announced to the world that I would be in the franchise."

In the clip on Instagram, Vin Diesel said: "I know this sounds crazy but every blue moon I feel like Pablo up there sends me someone, and today someone came by the Toretto gym that speaks that speaks to what Pablo would have brought me."

The camera then pans over to reveal Cena in a suit and tie with a big grin. He waves at the camera and winks before the video ends.

So there you have it, the moment that Cena discovered he would be in the Fast and Furious franchise was not through a casting agent - but by discussing philosophy with Vin Diesel in his gym.