The Fast and the Furious franchise has been around for nearly two decades, and its latest installment, Fast X, is set to be released soon. As Vin Diesel, star of the franchise, prepares to say goodbye with the eleventh installment, he recently spoke with Variety about the real challenge of continuing the franchise this long. Despite the crazy stunts and action sequences, it’s not the physical aspect of production that’s become more difficult – it’s the expanding and evolving mythology.
If you’re a fan of the Fast and the Furious franchise, then this blog post is a must-read. We’ll take a look at Vin Diesel’s comments about the real challenge of continuing the Fast & Furious franchise and how the mythology of the franchise has evolved over the years. We’ll also explore how the complexity of the mythology has made it more difficult to keep up with the characters’ backstories and relationships.
Vin Diesel’s comments about the challenge of continuing the Fast & Furious franchise this long were quite revealing. He stated that it’s not the physical aspect of production that’s become more challenging, but the writing and the expansion of the franchise’s mythology. This is something that fans of the franchise have noticed, as the more recent entries have become more outrageous in their action sequences and have featured retcons of past installments in order to create a deeper sense of narrative cohesion.
For example, Han’s (Sung Kang) apparent death in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which was initially thought to be an accident, was later revealed to be the work of Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). This brief scene established Shaw as a dangerous new threat and upped the stakes for Dom and the rest of the crew. However, in F9: The Fast Saga, it was revealed that Han actually didn’t die at all and that the whole thing was orchestrated by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell).
The Fast X trailer also reveals that Jason Momoa’s new villain, Dante, is actually related to Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida)’s character in Fast Five, who died as a result of Dom’s actions. While these various retcons made to previous films do help to make certain narratives feel more interconnected, there comes a point where keeping characters’ backstories and relationships straight becomes untenable.
The Fast & Furious franchise has come a long way since The Fast and the Furious in 2001, and it’s clear that Vin Diesel’s comments about the complexity of the mythology are spot-on. As the franchise continues to expand and evolve, it will be interesting to see how the writers and filmmakers will be able to keep up with the ever-growing mythology.
