Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of The Fast and the Furious’ release, which spawned a blockbuster franchise that’s much crazier than originally envisioned. Nevertheless, clearly a lot of people enjoy the Fast & Furious movies given their longevity and box office returns, and Tenet director Christopher Nolan can be counted among that bunch. That’s right, the man who’s given the masses movies like Memento, Interstellar and the Dark Knight trilogy is down for a high-octane, explosive caper like the rest of us.
During Christopher Nolan’s recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to plug Tenet’s home release, it was noted how the filmmaker likes all sorts of movies, including the Fast & Furious entries. When asked which movie from that franchise he likes the most, Nolan responded:
I’m sort of original recipe… but I’ve got a very soft spot for Tokyo Drift actually. And then with Justin Lin’s iterations, as they got crazier and bigger and crazier and bigger, they became something else, but something else kind of fun.
One can understand why Christopher Nolan likes The Fast and the Furious the most given that it’s the movie that started it all, introducing us to character’s like Paul Walker’s Brian O’Connor and Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, and showing how integral fast cars are to their lives. Still, he’s certainly not in appreciating Tokyo Drift, the third Fast & Furious movie which, aside from a Diesel cameo at the end, starred all-new characters. As of last year, we’re now at nine total Fast & Furious movies, with Hobbs & Shaw being the first spinoff and F9 only months away from arriving.
While the Fast & Furious franchise performed respectfully during its first decade of existence, it was 2011’s Fast Five that kicked things up a notch. The series started focusing less on street racing and more on heists. With each passing entry, the adventures have gotten wilder and the laws of physics have been more frequently broken. But as Christopher Nolan mentioned, that shift into something different has benefitted the Fast & Furious franchise greatly. After all, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious both cracked the $1 billion mark.
Alas, don’t count on Christopher Nolan directing a Fast & Furious movie, and not just because he hasn’t worked on an existing intellectual property since his Batman movies. It was announced in October that following F9, the main Fast & Furious film series will wrap up with two more movies, and Justin Lin is set to direct both of them. Maybe there’s a slim chance Nolan could be courted to helm one of the upcoming spinoffs, but I’m guessing he’ll continue to watch how this universe expands from the sidelines.
F9, which races into theaters on May 28, 2021, will see Dominc Toretto and his crew facing off against John Cena’s Jakob, Dominic and Mia Toretto’s estranged brother who has allied himself with Charlize Theron’s Cipher. Keep your eyes peeled to CinemaBlend for more Fast & Furious updates, and look through our 2021 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out next year. Tenet arrives on Blu-ray, 4K, DVD and Digital HD next Tuesday, December 15.
