The first trailer for Fast X has finally arrived, and with it came some welcome information about Jason Momoa’s villainous character, Dante. In the preview, it was revealed that Dante was present for the events of Fast Five, as he had some kind of relationship with that movie’s main antagonist, Joaquim de Almeida’s Hernan Reyes. Now Louis Leterrier, who took over as Fast X’s director after Justin Lin left the production, has shared why Momoa’s character is connected to the 2011 Fast & Furious entry.
While breaking down the first Fast X trailer with Total Film, Louis Leterrier shared that Fast Five is his favorite Fast & Furious movie, which resulted him thinking ‘What if, what if, what if?' when he started working on this latest installment. From there, Leterrier talked about how there’s “price to justice” and a “price to Dom’s life choices, in order to take that darkness from the world,” resulting in a “domino effect.” He continued:
We know that’s the price that Dom, and the family, is going to pay. And Fast Five, for me, represented this the most. Fast Five was the last [Fast] movie that truly dealt with human stakes – the oppression of the poor. Reyes was oppressing the favelas and stealing from them. Dom and the family, they Robin Hood the money, and give it back. But when you think they’re doing the right thing, there’s always somebody who thinks you’re doing the wrong thing. So what we tried to do was to Rashomon the Fast Five safe heist, which is my favourite of all time. We were like, ‘What if we filmed it through the eyes of the bad guys? Where the bad guys, in that vision, are Dom and Brian, and they’re stealing this family safe?’
Louis Leterrier then said that this “felt like a very strong thematic direction to start the movie,” indicating that Fast X will begin with revisiting the Fast Five climax, but this time see it from Dante’s perspective. As the Fast X trailer showed, Dante was on hand to witness Dominic Toretto and his crew stealing the vault containing Hernan Reyes’ money, and he was the one driving the car carrying Reyes when the drug lord chased after the protagonists to get his loot back. The car chase ended with Dante, Reyes and the car’s other occupants being knocked off that bridge, and while Dante made it out alive, Reyes was soon after executed by Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs as retribution for killing his fellow DEA agents.
When asked about Dante’s connection to Hernan Reyes, Louis Leterrier confirmed that they were indeed “family,” clarifying that the former is the latter’s son. As for what Jason Momoa brings to the table for Fast X, Leterrier first summarized it as “chaos,” then elaborated:
He brings what this franchise needs. He puts Dom on his back-foot. Dom is about control, and about reactivity. It’s easy to react and fight off somebody who’s cold, calculated, and everything. But when someone is crazy and nihilistic and basically doesn’t give a fuck about anything and is also completely obsessed with Dom… like, he’s obsessed with him. He’s like a crazed fan. These are the most dangerous enemies.
Dante clearly has an axe to grind with Dominic Toretto and will go to any lengths to exact revenge, including kidnapping his son, Brian Marcos, who’s now being played by Leo Abelo Perry. But Dante isn’t the only villain in Fast X, as Charlize Theron’s Cipher is also back in play. It remains to be seen if Dante and Cipher are allied somehow or will separately antagonize the movie’s protagonists. Assuming Dante sticks around for Fast 11, the final entry in the main Fast & Furious film series, it’ll also be interested how he’s tied to the mysterious adversary who’s promoting AI and driverless cars, a character Vin Diesel would like Robert Downey Jr. to play.
We’ll learn more about what Dante’s deal is when Fast X premieres in theaters on May 19. Use your HBO Max subscription to stream F9 so you’re caught up to speed before the next movie’s arrival.
