With Hobbs and Shaw officially a success, it’s time for the Fast and Furious franchise to consider other spinoff films to keep the franchise going in perpetuity.
The Fast and Furious franchise is now in its 18th year, with its ninth movie coming up and its very first spinoff a huge success.
When adjusted for inflation, the franchise has made more than $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office and netted some pretty big names — names like Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren — in the process.
What started out as a low-budget ($38 million low) feature film about a street racing gang has expanded into a big budget, blockbuster superhero franchise in its own right — complete with characters who can flex out of casts, crumble an entire concrete floor with a stomp of their foot, and a superpowered individual who refers to himself as ‘Black Superman.’
That last character comes from Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, the Fast and Furious franchise’s first go at a spinoff series — though judging from the box office and the end credits scene, certainly not its last.
However, with Vin Diesel and franchise Producer Neil Moritz stating that the franchise will be coming to an end with the tenth film, it’s time to start thinking of the other spinoff possibilities this nearly two-decade long franchise has afforded us.
Here are the top 3 I would love to see as a fan!
‘Fast and Furious’ presents: Villains Only
“I don’t have friends,” Charlize Theron’s villainess Cipher says with a smirk.
“I have associates.”
This scene hasn’t happened in the Fast and Furious franchise…yet.
But it could. And it should.
And I’m also already laughing in delight just thinking about it.
The riff on Dom’s favorite phrase — and underlying theme, if there ever is a theme, to these films — would be a perfect way to introduce a villains-only spinoff featuring some or all of the previous villains from the Fast and Furious franchise. I mean, yes, some of these villains are assumed dead — but we’re operating on comic book rules here, people, and without a burned out body shown on screen, we can always bring villains back to life.
The villains could be brought together by Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody, similar to the way Russell’s character looped into Dom’s crew in Furious 7, and be tagged for a covert ops team with a penchant for violence and an intimate knowledge of the seedier side of the law.
Think of it as a Fast and Furious version of Suicide Squad, with Kurt Russell acting as Amanda Waller and the Fast and Furious rogues controlled by nanobots or mechanical collars or whatever technobabble the franchise wishes to throw at them.
Fast and Furious has netted some pretty great stars as villains, and it’d be a pity to waste them as a one and done character. Bring them back together as a villain squad we can enjoy, and watch the money roll in!
Vanessa Kirby: Action Star
If you went into Hobbs and Shaw because of Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson or Idris Elba, you definitely came away satisfied.
But you also came away a huge Vanessa Kirby fan.
Kirby, originally known for her work on The Crown, has become a bonafide action star in her own right after turns in Mission Impossible: Fallout and Hobbs and Shaw. As Deckard Shaw’s sister Hattie (something we’re meant to believe despite the 20 year age gap between the actors), Vanessa Kirby kicks a whole lot of ass and more than stands out between her two beefer, brawnier costars.
As Kirby herself says, Hattie as a character in Hobbs and Shaw is “not being objectified. She’s not the weak link. She doesn’t need them to fight on her behalf. She doesn’t need to be saved.”
What she does need? Her very own spinoff.
Of course, there’s supposedly an all-female spinoff on its way already, which would be a great place to put Vanessa Kirby’s Hattie. It’d be a blast to see her interact with Fast and Furious franchise vets like Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster and Nathalie Emmanuel.
But I also wouldn’t mind a spinoff with her in the starring role, and with her mother, played by Helen Mirren, as her co-star. We’ve seen Mirren flex her action star chops in the Red films, and it’d be absolutely magnificent to see her side-by-side with Vanessa Kirby kicking ass, driving cars and doing ridiculous stunts.
I don’t even care what the plot would be — and if you’re going to these movies, I’m guessing ‘seeing it for the plot’ isn’t high on your list. I’m sure an hour and a half of watching Vanessa Kirby and Helen Mirren snark at one another and at their enemies while kicking ass is more than worth the price of admission.
#JusticeforHan
Longtime Fast and Furious screenwriter Chris Morgan has promised that #JusticeforHan is coming.
In fact, his exact words were: “Justice for Han is owed. It’s something we have discussed for a very long time and want to give the right due to.”
If you were hoping that Hobbs and Shaw might be the place where we’d at least get a hint at what this might mean, (spoiler alert) prepare to be disappointed. Han gets one vague, throwaway line from Deckard about doing things he needs to make amends for…and that’s it.
That’s not nearly enough due.
The best way to give #JusticeforHan its rightfully owed (and long delayed) due? Make an entire spinoff movie (or series — I’m not picky!) dedicated to that very proposition.
This could be tricky, given that Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw is a popular character whose characterization and origin seem to be continually tweaked (and dare I say, retconned?) to make the team working with him palatable. He’s gone from hardline antagonist to cheeky anti-hero in the space of a few movies, while Sung Kang’s Han Lue has gone from vital team member to distant — frequently unmentioned — memory.
However, it’s not necessarily required to kill off Deckard Shaw to get justice for Han — but it is necessary to have him face the consequences and the reality of what he’s done. And since Jason Statham’s introduction into the series was to get justice for his brother, Owen, what better way to bring justice for Han than to reverse the roles — have a sibling of Han’s come after Deckard (and perhaps target Owen, Hattie, and Magdalena on the way there) on a quest to get justice for Han.
I myself am partial to a younger sister of Han, someone who was rather young when her brother died and has spent years training to get back at the man responsible for killing her brother.
Her final confrontation with Deckard would bring him face to face with the consequences of his actions and the trauma that he has inflicted. What would actually constitute real justice for Han’s death, I leave up to better writers than I, but I would want Han’s little sister to come through her film alive and unscathed — just so she could be a part of the eventual Fast and Furious female spinoff.