The Fast and Furious franchise has been going strong for eight movies plus a spinoff and while the ninth film was supposed to be here by now, we'll have to wait until 2021 to see the next chapter in the ongoing franchise. It promises to give us lots of things we haven't seen before, like a new character played by John Cena, and maybe some stuff in outer space? However, one of the biggest things that we've been promised with F9 is a stronger female perspective, thanks largely to word done by Michelle Rodriguez.
Michelle Rodriguez has played the character of Letty in the Fast & Furious franchise from the beginning, but prior to the beginning of production on the most recent entry, the actress made it clear that she wanted to see stronger support for the female characters in the movies by bringing on women behind the scenes. In a recent interview with SiriusXM, Rodriguez explained that it was necessary because of the unconscious bias that comes from having a franchise written entirely by men. According to Rodriguez...
Guys get excited about their own stories. So it's almost like a forgetfulness. And so it's just kind of like having to remind them gently from the sidelines for years that you exist, you know? And that you're loud and that you're hardcore and that you won't take shit from anybody. All the (male writers) are focused on the guys, period. It's just an egoist natural thing. People just care about themselves usually, or people who look like them or act like them or have the same genitalia, I don't know. It's just how it works.
Michelle Rodriguez actually sounds quite understanding of the whole situation. She's not faulting the male writers of the franchise for automatically writing stories focused on the men. She understands the way that happens. However, because it happens, female writers are needed to balance things out.
While it's been reported that a female writer was added to the Fast & Furious series we know very little about that at this point. Daniel Casey is still the only credited writer for F9 at this point. It's possible that a female writer or writers are involved, and either just haven't been publicly announced yet or the work being done is small enough that they won't be credited. Still, if the writing being done helps out the female representation in the movie, then Michelle Rodriguez is apparently happy...
I wanted all the females in Fast & Furious to get some love.
We know that in addition to Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster will be returning to the franchise with F9 after sitting out the last installment. F9 is set for release April 2, 2021.
