It’s been a running joke that tracks parallel to the Fast & Furious franchise. Fans joke that the wild, car-crashing series has attempted almost every physically insane stunt. When are they going to go to space? Well, it looks like the story for the upcoming F9 is finally ready to launch at least two cast members in the franchise to the stratosphere, as witnessed in the closing scenes of the latest F9 trailer, which you can watch up above.
The trailer for F9 is dropping because after countless delays, the anticipated sequel is holding on to its June 25 release date, helping to usher in some semblance of a summer blockbuster season. And as you can see, from the footage, returning director Justin Lin is picking up right where he left off -- having helmed four straight Fast & Furious movies from Tokyo Drift to Fast & Furious 6.
The magic word for this sequel? Magnets. No, wait. Family. As usual. The trailer above focuses heavily on the most important “F” word in the Fast saga. And there will be generations of family members, both blood relatives and siblings forged in the streets, actively involved in F9… which leading actor Vin Diesel repeatedly referred to a “Fast 10.1” during a recent press event held on behalf of this global trailer launch.
Two men who call Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) brother will be part of this story. Jakob (franchise newcomer John Cena) is Dom’s little brother, who is back in his sibling’s life and ready to cause hell. And Han Lue (Sung Kang) is Toretto’s “brother from another mother,” a vintage Fast & Furious character who we thought we lost in a fiery wreck at the end of The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Only, surprise, he’s back! We don’t know how yet. But this franchise has revived characters the audience thought were dead (welcome back, Michelle Rodriguez), so we’ll just patiently wait to see how the soap opera plays out.
The rest of the expected Fast & Furious gang is back for this run, including Diesel, Rodriguez, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, the last two being the ones who are in the car that appears to be strapped to a rocket and ready to move this franchise to the next level. Space, the final frontier. Where can the Fast franchise go after this? The afterlife?
I’m most curious to see how Charlize Theron’s character Cipher fits into this chapter. She pulled strings and manipulated Dom in The Fate of the Furious, and she now has Dom’s brother Jakob in her back pocket. We still have a few more months left to see what her complete plan will be, but my money is on the F9 crew being able to outrun whatever it is that Cipher has up her sleeve.
