The Huntsman: Winters War may not be anywhere close to the smash hit Universal was hoping for, but at least they have a massively successful action franchise in Fast and Furious in their back pocket. The eighth installment in the Fast and Furious series, Fast 8, is racing toward us, and it, coincidentally, also stars Charlize Theron. It was reported that Theron had officially joined the cast a while back, and now we’ve gotten out first look at her character, Cipher, courtesy of the Fast and Furious Twitter account. Check it out:
The details of Charlize Theron’s character are still unknown, but we do know that she will play a villain named Cipher. And she looks pretty cool, rocking a Metallica t-shirt with a ponytail! Even from just this picture, you can tell that she’ll have a bit more personality than the previous villains in the franchise, Owen and Deckard Shaw, played by Luke Evans and Jason Statham respectively. It’s been speculated that Cipher will end up being a third Shaw sibling, making this a real family affair, but so far that’s gone unconfirmed.
From the sounds of it, Cipher will be unlike any other villain in the franchise. The description in the Tweet makes it seems like she won’t be something Vin Diesel and the gang has faced before, so that means she won’t be ex-military, mercenary, or some kind of crime lord. You can bet your life savings though that she’ll race around in a car. Hell, maybe even two cars! Charlize Theron got behind the wheel in another massively popular driving movie in Mad Max: Fury Road, so you know she can handle the action.
Things are looking pretty good for Fast 8, right now. They’ve cast a great villain in Charlize Theron, and she’ll probably help subvert the idea of what we’ve come to expect from villains in these movies. Not to say that I didn’t like the Shaw boys, but they were both kind of one note. These movies don’t really need them to be more than that, but you can always appreciate a good villain. I’m excited to see Vin Diesel’s Dom race Cipher through the streets while deciding if it’s okay for him to get into a fist fight with a woman or to just let Letty do it.
Series newcomer F. Gary Gray directs Fast 8, with a script penned by Chris Morgan. The film stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron, and Scott Eastwood. Fast 8 races into theaters, with plenty of explosions and crazy car stunts, on April 14, 2017.
