Recently, Fast and Furious franchise star Michelle Rodriguez seemingly confirmed that the next installment in the series, F9 will feature action set in space, validating years of people joking on the internet that the daffily escapist franchise would eventually be forced to head to space to top its previous stunts. Now, Seth Rogen has revealed on Twitter that the idea for Fast and Furious: Space Edition, had been floating around a decade ago.
About ten years ago, me and @evandgoldberg were with one of the producers of The Fast and Furious franchise. Evan said as a joke, “they should go to space!” The producer looked at us, dead serious, and said… “not yet.” https://t.co/L3iyTKh3qB
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) September 11, 2020
“About ten years ago, me and @evandgoldberg were with one of the producers of The Fast and Furious franchise. Evan said as a joke, “they should go to space!” The producer looked at us, dead serious, and said… “not yet.”
A decade ago, the Fast and Furious franchise was still relatively grounded in its approach to stunts and action scenes, having not yet featured drag racing submarines or parachuting cars. But it seems even back then the producers knew that was the direction the franchise was heading in, which could naturally only culminate in Dominic Toretto and his crew blasting off into space to punch an asteroid in its face or something. While F9 was supposed to release this year, the lockdown delayed its release by a full year, and that delay is what Rodriguez blamed for the info leak when she was asked about the rumors regarding a space-sequence in the film.
“Oh, no way. How did you guys find that out? See what happens? People start talking behind the scenes, man. When a movie doesn’t come out and forget about it, things get out. Nobody was supposed to know that…Oh, well, no, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not lucky enough to hit space.”
While the actress is not going to be part of Fast and Furious going into outer space, she expressed happiness over the fact that the movie hired a female writer who was able to add some weight to the female characters in the movie, who Rodriguez feels often get sidelined in favor of the men.
Fans were already hyped for F9 even before they knew it would feature space-based action. The movie will see the return of fan-favorite character Han, who had been seemingly killed by Deckard Shaw in a previous installment of the franchise. Also in the mix is newcomer John Cena, who will play the role of Dom’s younger brother with a special kind of grudge against his brother.
Interestingly, another major action star is gearing up for a space jaunt in his upcoming movie. Tom Cruise is producing a film set in space, that will actually shoot in space with the help of Elon Musk and NASA. It remains to be seen if fans will prefer the space action in F9 or what they will get to see in Cruise’s movie.
Directed by Justin Lin, F9 features Vin Diesel, John Cena, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel and Sung Kang, with Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron and Cardi B. The film arrives in theaters April 2, 2021.