Vin Diesel Trends As Latest Victim of Celebrity Death Hoax
Vin Diesel continues to be a draw for fans who love the action genre, leading films such as Bloodshot and the Fast & Furious franchise. Even if you’re not a diehard fan of his acting, his presence—and voice—brings a certain element to a movie.
Although the next Fast 9 is postponed until 2021, he’s busy working on Avatar 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Furya, the next chapter in Riddick’s story.
When you hear about Diesel in the news, it is usually about a project he’s involved in, but that wasn’t the case this time.
Vin Diesel’s name caught up in a death hoax
If you’re on social media, then you’re aware that celebrity names will trend for various reasons. These days, it can be due to controversy, a major announcement, or a death.
For Diesel, it was a terrible rumor that the actor passed away, and it had fans worried. During the weekend of May 30, the fake story began circulating online and was trending on Google.
It originated on Facebook with a false headline and users who clicked on the story were diverted to a website. There, a hoax CNN video reported that Diesel was killed in a car accident, the result of stunt gone wrong, and the video included pornographic content.
What made it worse was that some social media users fell for the bait of sharing the link in order to gain access to viewing it.
It’s not the first time Diesel was subject of hoax
As noted by Politifact, Diesel was associated with a death rumor back in 2018. It didn’t go viral like this one, but it was similar as it indicated Diesel perished in a crash. Most of these false reports are tied to situations involving film productions.
Snopes noted that 2014 marked the first time Diesel was a victim of such bogus stories, with spam posts saying “RIP Vin Diesel” going viral. Unfortunate users who clicked on them were connected to an app that infected one’s contacts with the same spam.
It happened to his co-star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson too
In late 2019, The Rock was tied to his own celebrity death hoax that also started on Facebook. There was a headline that read, “BBC: Dwayne The Rock Johnson Dies at 47 after a terrible stunt attempted failed.”
Twitter users sought confirmation about its validity and for hours, no one could find an answer. Finally, the mystery was solved, and fans were assured that he was indeed alive and well.
Diesel’s last social media post was on May 22, which happened to be the original release date for Fast 9 prior to COVID-19. The film will now arrive in theaters on April 2, 2021, and Fast and Furious 10 is already in the works.
Additionally, Diesel’s superfans can look forward to him filming Furya soon, which will send Riddick (of Pitch Black) to his home planet. And they can put to bed any solemn rumors about his mortality.
