If it’s one thing that has been very apparent over the past few decades, it’s that you can never count out the “Fast and the Furious” franchise.
Since 2023, when Universal unleashed the wildly expensive “Fast X,” that saw director Louis Leterrier step into production mid-stream after original director Justin Lin left the movie, we have been wondering what, exactly, has been going on with the franchise. “Fast X” was meant to be the first part of a two-part saga; the movie didn’t even have a proper ending, instead opting for a cliffhanger.
But now we at least know when the franchise will be making its return, with Universal dating “Fast Forever” for Friday, March 17, 2028.
Beyond that, there are no details – will Louis Leterrier be back to direct? Will, as the last installment promised, Gal Gadot and Dwayne Johnson return to the series? And who from the original cast will also be making it back?
The franchise began in 2001 as an inauspicious, street race version of “Point Break,” with Paul Walker’s undercover cop befriending and then betraying Vin Diesel’s thief/racer. Since then, the franchise has taken many unexpected detours, first with the excellent spinoff “The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift,” which reframed the narrative as a coming-of-age story set in Japan, and then, in subsequent mainline installments, as a series of heist/espionage films. The movies have attracted some of the biggest names in action cinema – besides longtime mainstay Justin Lin, James Wan and F. Gary Gray have helmed installments, with David Leitch handling the Johnson-led spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw.”
The franchise has also inspired an animated Netflix series, “Fast & Furious Spy Racers,” which ran for five seasons from 2019 to 2021, and several theme park attractions at the Universal theme park attractions around the world. A new attraction, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, is set to open at Universal Studios Hollywood this year and at Universal Studios Orlando in 2027.
“Fast Forever” will be the 12th installment in the franchise.
