One of the most anticipated movies of 2020 just became one of the most anticipated movies of 2021. F9, the newest installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, recently joined every other movie set to come out in the next month or so and delayed its release, though F9 went the extra mile by pushing itself off for a full year. People were already going to have a hard time waiting that long for a movie that was so close to happening, and Vin Diesel may have accidentally made it that much harder by teasing fans with an as yet unrevealed cameo.
Before it was announced that F9 was being delayed, Vin Diesel was promoting Bloodshot, his new film releasing today, among the last of the wide release films we'll see for at least a month, when he told ET that apparently some sort of unknown role is on the way in the film. In response to a question about what Oscar winning performers Diesel would like to see in the franchise, he said...
There's a big surprise coming. I can't tell anyone, [But] it is so awesome.
The Fast & Furious franchise already has one Oscar winner in its ranks with Helen Mirren having joined the series in The Fate of the Furious, and we know from the trailers that she'll be in F9, but it appears that perhaps there's another Oscar winner that might be appearing in the new film that we don't know about yet.
It's actually a bit surprising that there's a role we don't know about in F9, considering that the first trailer revealed that Han was alive, which feels like the sort of secret the movie might want to keep for a while. But apparently there are some secrets the movie is still keeping after all.
Of course, when Vin Diesel said that, he thought the movie would be coming out in a few weeks, and now we won't be seeing F9 until April of 2021. This means that the secret cameo will likely need to be kept secret for close to a year. One hopes Vin Diesel enjoys avoiding this question for the next few months.
And we can spend the next year trying to figure out what this "big surprise" is. Based on the fact that it was an answer to a question about an Oscar winner appearing in the franchise, it seems like that's what we're going to get, but it could be something else. Maybe another distinguished actor, Oscar winner or not, will be appearing. Or maybe it's Ben Stiller.
Is it too much to hope that Gal Gadot will appear in F9 with Han? Of all the characters in the series that have died, she's the only member of the team who has had to stay dead. It doesn't seem fair.
