Few film franchises to date have been as successful as the Fast & Furious franchise. Debuting in 2001, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have been a mainstay in Hollywood for two entire decades as of June of this year as Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Connors, street racers who utilize their skillset behind the wheel in their everyday lives. After nine films and billions of dollars of revenue later their position has been cemented in film history as one of, if not the most, successful franchises in Hollywood history. Despite Walker tragically passing in 2013 as the result of a high-speed car crash, illustrating how in tune with the character he played he really was, to this day Fast & Furious movies continue to dominate summer box offices worldwide. It appears that tradition is going to remain a tradition in the immediate future: Universal Studios is currently preparing for a release for F9, the ninth installment of the storied franchise, and Vin Diesel is giving us plenty of new information about the upcoming film.
Earlier this month we received the second trailer for F9, highlighting that WWE wrestler John Cena has been pegged as the villain for the upcoming project. The franchise is certainly no stranger to wrestlers, with Dwayne Johnson appearing in several of the recent Fast films and receiving his own spin-off alongside Jason Statham in 2019. In the trailer they note that Cena’s character is actually the brother of Diesel’s character and a driving force in the plot of the story, something Diesel has opened up about in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. In said interview he notes, “The whole world has this excitement about this movie coming out, but for those who have been with the franchise, it’s even more special. Because if you can remember the first movie, you are now going to go before the first movie and understand the first movie even more.” Despite how far the franchise has come, the face of the franchise is confident they have remained true to their roots in doing so and remains excited about its future.
While many have a love/hate relationship with the legendary franchise, few can deny how much the films have permeated pop culture. The myriad of up-and-coming drivers who are enthusiastic about modified cars and pushing them to their limits highlight this, true to the spirit of the film’s notorious protagonists. It looks like their influence will not be dying out any time soon either with F9 releasing this upcoming summer. Fans of the franchise can mark off June 25th on their calendars as they get ready for the project to hit theaters.
