The Fast and Furious franchise has become one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood. It's certainly come along way since Rob Cohen directed the first movie about illegal street racers. Wherever it ends up, Rob Cohen would love to be there when it does. The man who directed the original The Fast and the Furious admits that he harbors a secret wish that the studio will call him when it's time for the series to wrap. According to Cohen...
I always wished Universal would come back to me to direct the last one.
It would certainly add a lovely bit of symmetry to see the man who started the franchise off return to finish it. Of course, considering how big things have been getting in the film series, the place where Rob Cohen would be picking up the story would look nothing like the place where he left it. The original The Fast and the Furious was really just a movie about a cop trying to stop some street racers who were also thieves. Now, the team led by Vin Diesel has added a host of new characters and is a team of international super spies. It makes sense if you...actually, no, no it doesn't make any sense. It's fun though.
Unfortunately, it probably isn't the studio that needs convincing to hire Rob Cohen to direct the final Fast and Furious. Vin Diesel is a producer on the franchise and he certainly has a lot of pull. Diesel has gone on record to say he'd like to see Justin Lin, who directed Furious 4 through 6, return to direct the final entry. All other things being equal, Diesel will probably get whatever, and whoever, he wants.
Of course, there is one other potential issue with figuring out who is going to direct the "last" movie in this franchise. You have to know going in that the movie you're making is the last one. Rob Cohen admits to ScreenCrush that Universal may have a hard time saying goodbye to that box office success. He jokes he'll only get the job...
If Comcast's Board of Directors ever allows them to end the goose that laid the golden egg.
As it currently stands, the next movie in this franchise will actually be a spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson's Hobbs and Jason Statham's Shaw. After that, we know there will be a Fast and Furious 9 and an FF 10. The implication is that the franchise will end with part 10, but even if that's the plan now, things could certainly change the closer we get to that final film.
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