The Fast and Furious saga has spanned over two decades, but Vin Diesel once was against the idea. When Dave Morales asked if he ever imagined the franchise to go on to 11 films, Diesel said, “After the first film, when they asked me to do a sequel or whether…we should do a sequel to the first one, I said no.” The actor did go on to skip appearing in the second one, with pals Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson leading instead.
Diesel goes on to explain why, saying “… I was coming off the 80s-90s when usually if you sequel-ized a movie, you destroyed the possibility of that movie being a classic.” Quite ironic, seeing how the original film is highly regarded as a classic amongst many fans, new and old.
Kind of hard to imagine how things would be if they left us with just one film. The Fast and Furious franchise is arguably one of the most consistently successful, even leading to the controversial spin-off, Hobbs and Shaw, with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham.
The whole gang is back for the 9th installment, with fan favorites from previous films being included as well. Many were shocked to see Lucas Black return, as we have not seen him since his first and only appearance in Tokyo Drift back in 2006. At that time viewers had almost given up on the films, since Walker and Gibson weren’t starring in it, but Diesel gave us a one-minute cameo at the end to excite the audience.
Listen to The Backstage Daily for all your entertainment news in 7 minutes or less! New episodes with celebrity guests every weekday.