‘F9’ director, Justin Lin, wants to see the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise continue after the eleventh and final movie. Arguably the godfather of the series, Lin has directed five films in the franchise. He is set to direct the final two films in the series as well, which will come out over the next few years.
‘The Fast & Furious’ franchise traces its humble beginnings back to Rob Cohen’s ‘The Fast’ and ‘The Furious’ in 2001. The film played with the Point Break formula and introduced LAPD cop, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), and hardened street thug, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), as two race car drivers who eventually become partners.
From there, the series gradually became increasingly bombastic and grandiose with each passing installment, delivering more action and continuously highlighting the importance of family among its ever-growing cast. After 9 films and a massive overall box office haul, the ‘Fast Saga’ is poised to finally cap things off with two films, debuting in 2023 and 2024.
Screen Rant recently caught up with Justin Lin to discuss ‘F9’ and the future of the Fast & Furious franchise in a conversation timed to the ‘F9’ home entertainment release. In the interview, Lin explained that he has had numerous conversations with his actors about their characters and that there’s ample room to tell stories in a streaming landscape even after the mainline series comes to an end.
Universal has already shown that the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise can exist outside of the main series to a certain extent. For example, ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’ was very much a standalone entity separated from the main series of films at the time of its release, and except for the introduction of Han and the brief Dom cameo in the film’s final moments, it very much exists as its own thing. Moreover, projects like ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ as well as ‘Fast & Furious Spy Racers’, show how the series can spin off and tell stories that move away from Brian and Dom. —Screen Rant
