The Fast Saga might be coming to a close - but the next flick in the main series still might
not be the last.
In keeping with the franchise's "more is more" aesthetic, star Vin Diesel has suggested that
Fast 10 might be split into two parts.
He made his remarks in a recent, wide-ranging interview with Total Film magazine.
The bombshell about the final Fast flick came as Diesel was discussing possibilities for
the future of the franchise, which he hopes will extend long beyond the life of the main
series in the form of spin-offs.
Of course, the first of these - Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw - hit theaters last
summer, pleasing the heck out of audiences and cleaning up at the box office to the tune
of $760 million worldwide.
No doubt, fans were shouting, "Make more!"
"No one tells me what to do!"
Anyway, Diesel said:
"The universe is so robust and so rich with talent and rich with story that, on one level,
it's totally feasible to have spinoffs, and I think that's something that is inevitable.
[Studio] Universal deserves it because of how much they've invested in this little saga,
and it'd be good to give back to Universal.
And for the fans, should Fast 10 parts one and two be the conclusion, it would be nice
for this world to continue for generations to come."
Generally speaking, two-part conclusions are more commonly associated with film adaptations
of popular books - and since none but the final volume in each series ever seems to
require the two-part treatment, the strategy can be seen as something of a cash grab.
Perhaps the most famous example is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a novel which dedicates
an absurd amount of its length to characters wandering around in the woods, and which it
could be argued really didn't need a pair of two-hour films to tell its story.
More recently, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay was split into two parts, which doesn't seem
quite so egregious; the novel is slightly more narratively dense, and as there are only
three books in the series, it's understandable that the movies' producers would seek to give
audiences more to chew on.
Strangely, though, in the case of Potter, the strategy paid off - but for Hunger Games,
not so much.
Deathly Hallows Part 2 was by far the highest-grossing film in the series, with Part 1 coming in
third behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; by contrast, Mockingjay Part 2 was
actually the series' lowest-grossing entry, with Part 1 coming in second behind Catching
Fire.
Of course, Hunger Games wasn't quite the box office force that Potter was, so the not-so-surprising
takeaway here is that the greater your franchise's cultural reach, the more likely it is that
audiences will shell out for two tickets to see the conclusion of the story.
With a worldwide gross of nearly $6 billion and the two most recent entries in the main
series having cleared $1 billion globally, the Fast franchise is one for which the strategy
could pay off, big time.
Obviously, box office numbers like that tend to prompt studios to look for ways to extend
franchises for as long as possible, which brings us to those spin-offs.
Hobbs & Shaw is, for the time being, the #4 all-time earner in the series, behind only
Fast and Furious 6, The Fate of the Furious, and Furious 7.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a top box office draw, his co-star Jason Statham looks ready
to keep kicking ass forever, and the two have excellent onscreen chemistry; it wouldn't
surprise us at all if Hobbs & Shaw were to become its own franchise, and while no sequel
has yet been confirmed, the flick's three post-credits scenes sure seemed to be setting
one up.
Here's what has been confirmed: According to Entertainment Weekly, an as-yet untitled,
all-female spin-off is likely to center on Michelle Rodriguez' Letty.
Diesel himself has talked up the project, and it's currently being scripted by Guardians
of the Galaxy writer Nicole Perlman, Lindsey Beer - who's currently working on the upcoming
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot - and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who penned Captain
Marvel.
With a wealth of great characters to choose from, the Fast universe could spin off in
untold directions once the main series comes to a close; heck, those spin-offs might even
introduce new characters which could receive spin-offs of their own in the future.
As long as it keeps bringing the high-octane action, fans will keep lining up for the latest
installment - and, speaking of which, you may want to mark your calendar.
F9 comes roaring into theaters on May 22, 2020.
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