The Fast & Furious franchise is nearing its end and while it now seems clear that we will be getting at least two more movies before it’s all said and done, just what those movies will entail is far less clear. The Fast X ending left us on a serious cliffhanger with Jason Momoa’s Dante with the clear upper hand. So we know we’ll be seeing him again, but it sounds like when we do, he may not be quite the same character that he was before.
Jason Momoa’s Dante was widely seen as the best part of Fast X so we can be sure fans of that film will be looking forward to seeing him again. When that happens, however, it sounds like we’ll be seeing something new. Speaking with Empire director Louis Leterrier says that Dante will “evolve” in the next film. He explained…
Let’s do something else. It’s never twice the same with Jason. Dante will truly evolve. Let’s explore something we haven’t seen before. He was fuelled by vengeance. He could have played it dark, angry. But it was interesting to play with the duality and the push-pull within the character, where within the same sentence he’s laughing and feels the pain of losing everything. Only an actor like Jason could have done that.
Jason Momoa walked a fine line in Fast X that saw Dante balance malice with humor in a way that certainly appeared to audiences. Momoa stole almost every scene he was in. And while it seems likely a lot of people would just be happy with more of that, it appears the goal will be to not try and repeat the past, but instead try and do something new.
Certainly seeing a massive character shift for Dante would be unlikely. He still has to come across as the same character, especially considering we expect the next Fast & Furious movie to pick up right where the last film left off. But it’s not hard to see that perhaps Dante’s plan, having reached a certain point of either success or failure by the next time we see him, could be undergoing a change-- maybe giving in to one side or the other of his dual personality.
When exactly we’ll see this evolution for Dante is a little less clear. The Fast & Furious franchise situation at this point, as far as we know it, is that there will be two more movies. The next film is being called a spinoff that will star Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs, who returned in the Fast X mid-credits scene. The film is supposed to bridge the gap between Fast X and the final movie, which is either Fast X Part 2 or Fast 11 depending on how you want to count.
Comments made by Jason Momoa certainly indicate he expects to appear in the Dwayne Johnson movie, so depending on exactly where in the timeline it fits, perhaps we could see Dante’s evolution begin there. Or perhaps it will be that movie that starts the change in the character and leads to whatever it is we will see in the final movie.
