Universal Finally Admits What Went Wrong With Fast and Furious
After years of high-speed stunts and box office dominance, even the studio now confesses there’s one major misstep in the Vin Diesel saga that fans can’t ignore.
Universal just said the quiet part out loud: there is one Fast & Furious moment they wish they could un-do. And yep, it is the one you are thinking of.
The scene they wish they could un-launch
During a chat at the Toronto International Film Festival, NBCUniversal exec Donna Langley admitted the franchise went a step too far with the space gag in 2021's F9. That was the sequence where Tyrese Gibson's Roman and Ludacris' Tej strap into a rocket car and literally leave Earth. Fans were split at the time, with plenty of people feeling like the series finally broke the sound barrier between fun and full-on cartoon. (And yes, it is Tej, not Ted.)
"I am sorry that we sent them into space. We can never get that genie back."
As far as rare studio candor goes, that is about as clear as it gets.
How the series evolved (and occasionally drifted)
Langley also talked about how the Fast movies blew past simple street-racing years ago because the team listened to what audiences wanted. That meant pivoting into globe-hopping heist territory and letting Vin Diesel cultivate that direct line to fans. The read was: pay attention to the conversation, follow it, and scale up accordingly. It worked... until someone lit a match under a rocket car.
What is next for Fast
Fast X hit theaters more than two years ago, and the next chapter is still a ways off. Here is where things stand:
- Fast X: Part 2 is currently dated for April 2027, with Louis Leterrier back in the director's chair.
- Vin Diesel is developing a new Fast & Furious short film that continues 2009's Los Bandoleros. Story and character details are still under wraps.
- Fast X was once positioned as the start of a new trilogy, but Diesel said in February 2024 that the next movie will be a 'grand finale.'
- There are rumblings the finale could be a throwback to the original film's vibe, potentially with a different villain than Jason Momoa's Dante.
If that all sounds like a course correction back to asphalt and physics, that is probably the point. After all, once you fire a car into orbit, there is nowhere to go but back down to Earth.