Every time it seems like the final chapter in the Fast And Furious franchise has come to a close, the series finds a way to get moviegoers more and more excited. Over the course of the past 20 years, the series has gone from boosting DVD players on the streets of Los Angeles to taking on a nuclear submarine in Russia, proving that there isn’t anything the crew won’t do or anywhere they won’t go except for maybe outer space. Since the release of The Fast And The Furious in the summer of 2001, there have been eight additional main entries (including this summer’s 9) in the series and one spin-off with 2019’s Hobbs And Shaw. If recent news is to be believed, it looks like there will be at least one more spin-off in the franchise after Vin Diesel revealed that a female-led Fast And Furious movie is in the works.
That news got us thinking why a female-led Fast And Furious movie is exactly what the franchise needs. I mean, the pieces are already there: a strong cast of female characters, a franchise that has a track record of taking chances and trying something new, and proven success in Hobbs And Shaw. If there has ever been a time to try a female-led spin-off and a franchise capable of pulling off such a feat, now’s the time for the Fast And Furious to try it out.
It Could Give The Already Amazing Female Characters More Time To Shine
Say what you will about the Fast And Furious movies, but they have always done a tremendous job of featuring strong female characters in prominent roles. With Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) having major roles in all but a few of the main films in the series, female representation has rarely, if ever, been an issue for the franchise. And that has only improved over the years with the introduction of characters like Megan Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Gisele Yashar (Gal Gadot) to the franchise.
One of the few problems with the introduction of so many great characters over the years is that real estate on the screen becomes more and more crowded, leaving some characters to smaller roles in subsequent films. By having an all-female cast, the movie could clear some room for less prominent female characters to get their moment in the spotlight. Nothing against Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson”), or Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), but sometimes it’s nice to let Letty, Mia, and Ramsey to take the spotlight.
This would also give the franchise the ability to introduce additional female characters to the franchise, which would only allow the franchise to continue to grow when the main series of films concludes with Fast And Furious 10 in April 2021. If Universal Pictures wants the series to continue to make $1 billion with each entry, the studio will need to start building new stars before Dom and crew close up shop in the coming years. Now is the time and this is their opportunity.
This Could Be How The Series Brings Gal Gadot Back Into The Fold
In case you have forgotten, Gal Gadot portrayed Gisele Yashar in three of the Fast And Furious films before she was eventually “killed off” in Furious 7 in 2015. Yeah, she sacrificed herself to save Han Lue (Sung Kang) and fell out of an airplane mid-flight, but as we previously discussed, stranger things have happened in this series. And with Han returning to the fold in this summer’s Fast And Furious 9, now would the perfect time to bring back the fan-favorite. They could bring Gisele back at the end of the ninth installment as a mystery person who saves Han from certain death and then use that to have her serve as an anchor for the all-female Fast movie.
In the years following her departure from the series, Gal Gadot has gone on to portray Wonder Woman in a number of the DCEU movies, including the upcoming Wonder Woman 84, which hits theaters on June 5. Having a bankable star who happens to be a tremendous actress could do wonders for the Fast franchise as it charts its future course.
The Female-Led Fast And Furious Movie Could Grow On The Success Of Hobbs And Shaw
If Hobbs And Shaw proved anything in 2019 it was that audiences would go see a Fast And Furious movie even if Vin Diesel and the rest of the crew (excluding Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham) were nowhere to be seen. And while the first Fast And Furious spinoff didn’t bring in $1 billion like the previous entries in the franchise, it still brought in more than $760 million globally. That’s nothing to scoff at. Hopefully, the film’s success is just the first of many spin-off movies in a series that doesn’t seem to bore audiences around the world. And perhaps the female-led spin-off could even bring Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby) into the fold.
The all-female Fast And Furious could even help the franchise enter a new market and better gear itself towards the female audience. This would be tricky, as the film would need to be nuanced and natural enough so it wouldn’t come off as pandering towards women or seem like a cash grab. But if done right, this movie could open up quite a few doors for the Fast And Furious franchise as it speeds towards the future.
This wouldn’t be the first time there has been a successful all-female spin-off of an already established film franchise. The 2018 female-led Oceans Eight brought in just shy of $300 million at the box office globally, and that film was released more than a decade after the previous film in the Oceans franchise was released. The film, while starring Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway, didn’t have any cast members from the original three films return. The all-female Fast And Furious movie would have the luxury of featuring many of the already established female characters from the franchise.
All we can hope for now is that the all-female Fast And Furious movie comes to fruition. We think that it would be another great step for a franchise that has done nothing but take chances over the past 20 years.
