Pre-2001, Vin Diesel had gained attention from movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Iron Giant and Pitch Black, but The Fast & the Furious certainly helped catapult him to worldwide fame. 20 years later, we’re about to see Diesel’s eighth outing as Dominic Toretto in F9, (ninth if you count his time in the Netflix series Fast & Furious Spy Racers), and we can count on him reprising arguably his most famous role for the final two entries in the main Fast & Furious film series. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that will be the last we see of Dom in the wider Fast & Furious universe.
While recently talking about his time in the Fast & Furious franchise, Vin Diesel mentioned how a Dominic Toretto-centric storyline that’s been talked about since he returned for 2009’s Fast & Furious that “can always exist in the future.” When Vulture asked for clarification about if he was referring to a prequel or spinoff for Dom, Diesel responded:
I will say that there is nothing that is off the table.
The Fast & Furious franchise is unquestionably more popular than ever, with Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious both crossing the $1 billion mark, as well as this world expanding beyond the main saga with the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff. So Dominic Toretto getting a standalone story, whether it’s set before The Fast & the Furious or after the main Fast & Furious film series has concluded, is not only a possibility according to Vin Diesel, I can definitely see Universal Pictures wanting to greenlight such projects if the studio’s looking for more ways to keep the franchise going.
Of course, at 53 years old, the chances of Vin Diesel playing Dominic Toretto in the days before he met Brian O’Connor are slim to none. If Universal decides to develop a Dominic Toretto prequel, you can be sure that a younger actor will be brought in to play the character, perhaps in a story chronicling how he got into hijacking. But with a spinoff, depending on how Fast & Furious 10 and 11 conclude the main film series, it’s definitely plausible that Dom could keep going on adventures. He may be getting older, but for now, it doesn’t seem like he’s willing to give up racing and saving the world just yet.
For now though, Dominic Toretto is still hanging around with his crew, which includes Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty Ortiz, Tyrese Gibson’s Roman Pearce, Ludacris’ Tej Parker and Nathalie Emmanuel’s Ramsey. And those aren’t the only familiar faces returning for F9, as Dom will reunite with his sister, Jordan Brewster’s Mia, as well as Sung Kang’s Han Lue, who, despite appearances to the contrary, did not die in that car crash during Tokyo Drift. However, on the other side of the coin, the next Fast & Furious movie is bringing Dom and Mia’s estranged brother, John Cena’s Jakob, who has teamed up with Charlize Theron’s Cipher to make Dom’s life hell.
F9 races into theaters on June 25, but you can read CinemaBlend’s review of the action-packed romp now. And needless to say that should Universal officially announce a Dominic Toretto standalone movie, we’ll let you know.
