Justin Lin and the Fast & Furious film series go way back. After helming 2006’s Tokyo Drift, Lin returned to helm Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6 and now the recently-released F9. So clearly Universal Pictures likes what Lin brings to the table with this franchise, but that doesn’t mean the studio and filmmaker haven’t had disagreements. For instance, Lin revealed that he argued with Universal about the title of Fast & Furious 6.
During his appearance on the ReelBlend podcast, when host Jake Hamilton inquired about whether Fast & Furious 10 would be stylized Fas10 (as in “Fas10 your seatbelt”), Justin Lin recalled his confusion over how the studio was advertising the sixth Fast & Furious installment vs. what he’d named the movie. In Lin’s words:
If you watch Fast 6, it’s called Fast & Furious 6, but when you watch the movie, it’s called Furious 6… So this is something that happens, and obviously I have a great time, I have a great relationship with the studio, but I was like, ‘Man, it was called Fast Five so you can have Furious 6. That was always by design.’ And somehow, for some reason, it became Fast & Furious 6. So there was some very… spirited conversations about titles, but I think we always have fun in how we choose to label each new chapter.
Going from Fast Five to Furious 6 is certainly a logical procession, but for some reason Universal wanted to go a more straightforward route with the 2013 blockbuster. This resulted in the “spirited” arguments between Justin Lin and Universal executives, although it doesn’t sound like this bothers Lin that much anymore. Frankly, I’m more bothered by the fact that 2017’s The Fate of the Furious wasn’t stylized as The F8 of the Furious. It’s right there!
Regardless, Justin Lin noted how they “have fun” choosing what to call each new Fast & Furious chapter, which he said originated from when he talked Vin Diesel into coming back for that Tokyo Drift cameo. The two men talked about the connections between the characters, and if another Fast & Furious movie were to be made, they didn’t want to repeat themselves, instead wanting to “evolve” the franchise. Lin continued:
I think the spirit of that actually went all the way in naming our movies. So I think F9 is the one, you see The Fast Saga, it’s actually the first time our commitment [is shown] to not just one movie and earning another one, it’s actually a commitment to a chapter. So Fast 9, I think it’s about bringing characters back, introducing new characters, but hopefully we’re setting everything up now for our final chapter.
No spoilers here, but F9 certainly lays the groundwork for Fast & Furious 10, which will be split into two parts. As for Fast & Furious 6, while there may have been a kerfuffle concerning what to specifically call the movie, it ultimately ended up being both critically and commercially successful, paving the way for its immediate two successors to both cross the $1 billion milestone.
Should you wish to revisit Fast & Furious 6, it’s currently streaming on Peacock. F9 is now playing in theaters, and we’ll be sure to let you know when both parts of Fast & Furious 10 are given release dates, along with any other major developments.
