Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto finds his peaceful family man existence violently interrupted yet again in the trailer for Fast X, the 10th main installment (and 11th full-length film) in the wildly successful Fast and Furious franchise.
(Some spoilers for prior films in the franchise below.)
This has been in the works since 2014, later divided into two films that will wrap up the main installments. Justin Lin was originally tapped to direct Fast X, but he exited the project due to “creative differences” one week after filming began in April last year, though Lin co-wrote the film and stayed on as a producer. The Hollywood gossip mill soon kicked into high gear, with reports of on-set clashes between Lin and Diesel, alleging the star was out of shape, struggled with his lines, and was often late to set. Lin also objected to some of the rewrites to his screenplay, and there were reports that after one intense disagreement with Diesel, he exclaimed that the film “is not worth my mental health.”
Universal had to scramble to find a replacement director, and it found one in Louis Leterrier, who directed the first two Transporter films, as well as 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, 2010’s Clash of the Titans, and 2013’s Now You See Me. Leterrier said that he wanted to do more real stunts enhanced with visual effects, rather than tons of CGI, to bring the franchise “back to Earth”—perhaps a sly reference to F9, which featured a climactic scene in which Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) ride a “rocket car” into near-Earth orbit to destroy a satellite and are rescued by the crew of the International Space Station (no, really). We’ll even see a bit more of the street racing that featured so prominently in earlier films.
All the main cast members are returning for Fast X: Diesel, Bridges, Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez as Letty, Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw, John Cena as Dom’s brother Jakob, Jordana Brewster as Dom’s sister, Nathalie Emmanuel as computer hacktivist Ramsey, and Sung Kang as Han Lue, who we learned in F9 had faked his death. Charlize Theron reprises her role as criminal mastermind Cipher, and Helen Mirren is back as Deckard’s mother, Queenie. There are some new faces, too, most notably Jason Momoa as the main antagonist, Dante, in league with Cipher. Brie Larson plays a character named Tess, and Rita Moreno plays Abuela Toretto, grandmother to Dom, Jakob, and Mia. This will also be the first film in the series to feature electric cars like the DeLorean Alpha 5.
Family has long been a central theme of F&F movies, and Fast X is no exception. Per the official premise:
In 2011’s Fast Five, Dom and his crew took out nefarious Brazilian drug kingpin Hernan Reyes and decapitated his empire on a bridge in Rio De Janeiro. What they didn’t know was that Reyes’ son, Dante (Jason Momoa), witnessed it all and has spent the last 12 years masterminding a plan to make Dom pay the ultimate price. Dante’s plot will scatter Dom’s family from Los Angeles to the catacombs of Rome, from Brazil to London and from Portugal to Antarctica. New allies will be forged and old enemies will resurface. But everything changes when Dom discovers that his own eight-year-old son is the ultimate target of Dante’s vengeance.
The trailer opens with Abuela reminding our assembled crew that despite all the hardships they have faced, they are still here together, “building this magnificent family.” But Dom is worried about past adversaries, especially now that he has something precious to lose. “You’re about to learn all about fear,” we hear Momoa’s Dante warn in a voiceover. He envies Dom’s happy, stable family, believing Dom to be responsible for his lack of the same, and vows to break them apart “piece by piece.” It’s not enough to bring death; Dante is out to make Dom suffer. Given that this film (plus its planned sequel) will bring the saga to an end, Letty just might be right when she says, “One of us might not come back from this.”
Fast X hits theaters on May 19, 2023.
Listing image by YouTube/Universal Pictures