When franchise star Michelle Rodriguez revealed Fast & Furious 9 would see Dominic Torettoโs familia take their NoS-fuelled antics to outer space, part of us didnโt want to believe it. Part of us still had faith director Justin Lin maintained some level of self-awareness. We posted an article โ complete with a tongue-in-cheek photoshop courtesy of yours truly โ and thought nothing more of it. Fast forward a few months, a fresh trailer has now dropped, and here we sit, with egg all over our face.
โNobody was supposed to know thatโฆ Oh, well, no, Iโm not lucky enough to hit space, but we did get a female writer and showed a lot of love, I think, on this one,โ Rodriguez confirmed during a SiriusXFM interview last year.
โThanks to Justin Lin. We were able to, to find a little bit more attention and love for the girls in the movie. And so Iโm really hopeful that that, that shows through in the final product.โ
As seen in the latest Fast & Furious 9 trailer above, the select characters โlucky enough to hit spaceโ are none other than comic relief duo: Ludacrisโ Tej Parker and Tyrese Gibsonโs Roman Pearce. And as we predicted from several quarter-miles away, they doubled down on the silly factor with a Dodge Charger thatโs been โ to quote myself โ modded to fuck.
RELATED: โFast & Furiousโ โ A Timeline Of The Franchiseโs Escalating Silliness
โI think through the years, part of the fun is to come up with crazy ideas to challenge ourselves,โ Lin tells Collider.
โBut I have to say, we never do it just for sake of shock value. It always takes something from the theme or the character journey. I can say that when I was working on Fast 9, there was a thread that felt very appropriate to take us to places that weโve never gone to.โ
โI drove to Vinโs house and I sat down with him and we looked at each other and we were like, โOKโฆ this is the one. This is the one that weโre going to try.โ And it felt very appropriate. So, I kind of canโt wait to share with the world, because the more we push and do crazier stunts and set-pieces, the more we have to check ourselves to make sure we earn that.โ
Alongside Vin Diesel, Rodriguez, Ludacris, and Gibson, Fast & Furious 9 will also mark the return of Jordana Brewster, Lucas Black, Charlize Theron, as well as Sung Kang (yesโฆ Hanโs โback from the deadโ). John Cena will be introduced to the universe as Domโs master thief/assassin/performance driver brother โ sigh โ with Cardi B and reigning UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou also cast in undisclosed roles (although thereโs a spoilery hint regarding the latter based on the footage provided so far).
Fast & Furious 9 was originally scheduled for international release on May 20th last year. That date has since been pushed to June 25th of 2021.
