Because the Fast & Furious franchise wound the clock back after 2006’s Tokyo Drift, moviegoers were treated to extra time with Sung Kang’s Han Lue. However, time ultimately caught up to the character, and during the Fast & Furious 6 mid-credits scene and Furious 7, we watched him again die in a fiery car crash… or so it seemed. As it turns out, Han is still alive and will return for F9 later this year, which has a lot of fans excited. But how does Jason Statham, the man who plays Deckard Shaw, who was retconned to have orchestrated Han’s demise, feel about this twist?
Because Jason Statham was busy shooting Hobbs & Shaw with Dwayne Johnson when F9 was being put together, he’s not expected to appear in the upcoming Fast & Furious movie. That being said, Statham is eager for Shaw and Han Lue to eventually come face-to-face in the main Fast & Furious film series. As the actor said with a laugh during an interview with EW:
They better bring me back, because I need to put out that fire. If he's got any score to settle, it's with me.
There is indeed a reckoning that would be great to see in the Fast & Furious franchise. While Han Lue’s death in Tokyo Drift was depicted as an accident that happened while he was being chased down by the antagonistic Takashi, it was later shown that Deckard Shaw was driving the car that t-boned Han, and he very much intended to kill him. Deckard did this to send a message to Dominic Toretto, who he held responsible for putting his brother Owen, Fast & Furious 6’s main villain, in a coma. He even blew up Dom and Mia Toretto’s house right after Han looked to have bit the dust.
These days, Deckard Shaw is operating as a protagonist in the Fast & Furious universe, having helped stopped Cipher in The Fate of the Furious and fought Bixton with Luke Hobbs in Hobbs & Shaw. However, Deckard’s not answering for “killing” Han led to fans demanding “justice” for the latter character. F9 director Justin Lin was supportive of this movement, and he decided to bring Han back. Lin will also direct the final two movies in the main Fast & Furious film series, and Jason Statham expressed interest in working with the filmmaker after briefly spending time with him on Fast & Furious 6. As Statham put it:
I'm game. I love Justin Lin, he's a great director. It's a shame because when I joined the franchise all those years back, he went on to do something else and all I did with Justin was a little tag at the end. I need to do a movie with him. And I'd love to see all the Fast crew, Vin [Diesel] and everybody, they're all great people. I have a lot of affection for them.
Even though Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw are now off in their own adventures, Justin Lin makes it sound like we will see them again in one or both of the final two Fast & Furious movies. If that does happen, it stands to reason that Deckard and Han’s awkward dynamic would need to be addressed in some way. But until that day comes, fans of the franchise can at least take comfort knowing that Han is now back with Dominic Toretto’s crew, although we still don’t know how he survived that car crash.
F9 races into theaters on June 25, and there’s also a Hobbs & Shaw sequel in development, although it will be a long time until we see it. Keep track of the other cinematic offerings coming later in the year by looking through our upcoming 2021 movies schedule.
