One of the biggest twists from 2023’s Fast X wasn’t something from the movie itself, but rather its production in real life. Just one week into filming, Justin Lin, who’d directed five of the previous Fast & Furious movies, departed the blockbuster, resulting in Louis Leterrier taking over helming duties. At the time, it was reported that this move stemmed from “creative differences” with franchise lead Vin Diesel. Now new details have come out about why Lin left Fast X, and they come with some wild reveals about scrapped plot points involving Jason Momoa’s Dante.

In an excerpt from Indiewire for the unauthorized book Welcome to the Family, which releases this week and covers the history of the Fast & Furious franchise, it’s mentioned that a “key source of discord” between Justin Lin and Vin Diesel, as well as actor’s sister/fellow producer Samantha Vincent, “centered around the script and its ending.” Specifically, there were drafts of the Fast X script where it was revealed that Dominic Toretto’s son, affectionately referred to as “Little Brian,” was actually the biological son of Dante, the movie’s main antagonist. While some thought this was “the perfect, if deeply dark, way,” for Dom to grapple with the concept of family, in that he’d be protecting a boy who wasn’t biologically his own, others, including Diesel, didn’t approve of the twist.

So had this made it into the final version of Fast X, that means that Little Brian’s biological mother, the late Elena Reves, would have had a thing going with Dante Reyes. I’m not sure how this would have worked on the Fast & Furious timeline considering that Elena got pregnant with Brian sometime prior to Fast & Furious 6, when she and Dom were still an item, and after Dante had already been injured during the bank vault heist sequence depicted in Fast Five. Also, I find it hard to believe that Elena would have gotten romantically involved with Dante since he was the son of crime lord Hernán Reyes and she was one of Rio’s few incorruptible police officers.

On top of all this, Welcome to the Family also shares that Justin Lin and Universal disagreed over the former’s idea for Fast X’s final action set piece, which would have “involved Dante using a giant excavator-like machine to wreak havoc.” Going this route would have propelled the movie’s production budget even higher, and Alexander Witt, a second-unit director who worked on Fast X, had this to say about the kibosh being put on this sequence:

I agree with the sentiment of this sounding too Transformers-y, although like Witt noted, the final action sequence still ended up being a CGI fest, so one could argue it was a lateral move. In any case, eventually a “heated closed-door meeting” with Universal convinced Justin Lin he needed bow out of directing Fast X. As noted in the book, this stands out from previous instances of directors leaving major movies, like Phil Lord and Chris Miller on Solo: A Star Wars Story and Bryan Singer on Bohemian Rhapsody, because Lin left on his own accord instead of being fired by the studio.

Justin Lin was still credited as a producer on Fast X, but his time with the franchise is now over. He returned to the filmmaking space with Last Days, which premiered on the 2025 movies calendar last month, and he’s set to direct the film adaptation of Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR for Netflix. Fast & Furious 11, which Louis Leterrier is returning to direct, still doesn’t have a release date, but Vin Diesel posted an optimistic update about its progress several weeks ago.

Few stars are as in demand in Hollywood right now as Sydney Sweeney is. Since her breakthrough with HBO’s Euphoria, Sweeney’s notoriety has been rising in a big way. That means she’s been landing her fair share of high-profile roles. Well, we can add another title to that list, as Sweeney has lined up another project – and it’s a remake of a movie that helped inspire Indiana Jones. As intriguing as this is, I really have to wonder just how Sweeney -- who has several 2025 movie schedule titles -- manages to rest in between all of these gigs.

Sydney Sweeney Is Joining A Remake Of A Classic Film

It seems Sweeney is taking her talents to Apple Original Films for That Man From Rio, which is a reimagining of Philippe de Broca’s 1964 movie of the same name. According to Deadline, the A-lister will not only star in the film but also serve as an executive producer. Directing this remake is Justin Lin, who’s best known for his work on The Fast & Furious franchise and Star Trek Beyond. Lin will helm the production from a screenplay written by Chase Palmer, who co-wrote 2017’s It and has worked on other projects as well.

The original That Man From Rio tells the story of a young military private who, while on leave, finds adventure while trying to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. In his travels, the man ends up in the eponymous Rio de Janeiro. This witty action caper of a film received positive reviews and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1965.

As noted by the trade, Philippe de Broca’s action flick also inspired the George Lucas and Steven Spielberg-crafted Indiana Jones movies, particularly in regard to the characterization of the titular character and a handful of the action sequences. It’s been noted that The Last Crusade particularly mirrors De Broca’s work in a specific way or two. As an Indy fan myself, I love this lore and can’t believe I was unaware of it before.

With that, I’m curious to see what Sydney Sweeney, Justin Lin and co. do with this remake. I just think the leading lady – whose exact role in the movie has yet to be specified – should get a bit of rest first.

Sydney Sweeney Has Seemingly Been Working A Lot Lately

Booked and busy is one of the best ways to describe Sweeney at this point in her career. By the end of 2025 alone, she’ll have marked the debuts of four titles. Earlier this year, Echo Valley and Eden (which technically hit the film festival circuit in 2024) were released. Sweeney’s most recent film – the boxing biopic Christy – is now set to hit theaters on November 7. Additionally, Sweeney is one of the leads in the book-to-screen adaptation of The Housemaid, which opens in December.

As for what Sydney Sweeney is currently working on, she’s been in the midst of filming Euphoria Season 3, which is reportedly set to premiere sometime in 2026. Sweeney’s also teaming up with a co-star from that show, Colman Domingo, as he’ll direct her and David Jonsson in a biopic about the romance between Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr. And did I mention that she’s also attached to headline the Barbarella remake?

I’m exhausted just listing all of the Sweeney-led productions that are on the docket. Still, I appreciate her hustle and look forward to seeing the That Man From Rio remake. Now, if you excuse me, I think I need a nap.

Although the ending of John Wick: Chapter 4 seemingly brought a permanent end to the title assassin’s story, making the chances of John Wick 5 happening unlikely, Keanu Reeves isn’t done with this character just yet. The 2025 movie schedule’s summer selections includes Ballerina, which takes place before the third and fourth John Wick movies, allowing Reeves to cross paths with Ana de Armas’ Eve Macarro. But that’s not the only action movie Reeves has coming up, and word’s come in that his BRZRKR film adaptation has recruited the Fast & Furious franchise’s Justin Lin.

Lin, who directed four of the Fast & Furious movies (it was going to be five before he dropped out of Fast X a week into filming) has been tapped to direct the BRZRKR movie. Announced back in 2021 shortly after the Boom! Studios comic book series began its 12-issue run, this project is being put together over at Netflix. THR also mentioned that Lin will produce through his Perfect Storm banner alongside Keanu Reeves, as will Stephen Christy for Boom! Studios, Stephen Hamel of Company Films and Ross Richie.

Although Justin Lin hasn’t directed Keanu Reeves in a movie before, their professional paths did cross when the latter became an angel investor in the former’s new movie, Last Days, which premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. But now these two will get to properly work together on this brutal action movie based off the comic book franchise that Reeves created. The Batman: Part II’s Mattson Tomlin wrote the film’s script, and he’s also going to be the showrunner for a spinoff anime series.

If you’re unfamiliar with BRZRKR, it revolves around B, a half-mortal, half-god immortal warrior who’s been around for 80,000 years and is compelled to inflict violence, even at the cost of his sanity. Per the official description provided by Boom! And Netflix:

Keanu Reeves co-wrote the original BRZRKR comic book series with Matt Kindt, and Ron Garney illustrated. That was followed by the Bloodlines spinoff series, which follows B at earlier points in his life. In July 2024, the novel The Book of Elsewhere was released, which takes place in an alternate universe from the main BRZRKR stories.

Now that Justin Lin has boarded the BRZRKR movie, hopefully this means its development will speed up and it’ll enter production in the near future. The sooner those with a Netflix subscription can see Keanu Reeves bring his creation to life in a cinematic setting, the better. Meanwhile, Ballerina opens in theaters on June 6.

While the feud between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson has reportedly been put in the past, the battle between the two that culminated during the production of The Fate of the Furious is well known at this point. It’s been confirmed that scenes in that movie that include both Johnson and Diesel were shot separately because the two avoided being on set together. However, it turns out a shot from back in Fast & Furious 6 that many fans believed had been composited together actually wasn’t.

Justin Lin, who directed several Fast & Furious movies, recently appeared on Happy Sad Confused and the topic of the infamous scene came up. It’s a sequence at the end of the movie where Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Diesel’s Dominic Toretto are talking in front of the barn/garage at Dom’s house. The two are talking to each other, but don’t appear to be looking at each other, giving the impression to many that perhaps the scene was shot with each actor separately, and then cut together. But Lin says that’s not the case. Both actors were there, and the weird framing comes from the fact the ground wasn’t even. He explained… 

This may blow the minds of fans who believed that the pair were never on set together. It wouldn’t be the first time that camera tricks were used to put two people in a shot that never filmed together. And knowing what we know now, it would have made sense if the actors had tried to avoid each other. It turns out Justin Lin didn’t even realize that the shot was going to look the way it did until he sat down in the editing room. He continued… 

Whenever the “beef” between Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel started, it does appear to be over now. Johnson is returning to the Fast & Furious franchise, we saw him in the Fast X mid-credits scene, for a new spinoff movie that will bridge Fast X with its planned conclusion. Whether we’ll actually see the pair in a shot together in an upcoming movie, we still don’t know. But hopefully, if it happens it will be on something flat.  

While directors leaving a movie before it begins filming isn’t an uncommon occurrence, it’s rare you’ll find instances where they leave in the midst of production. Arguably the biggest recent example of this was when director Justin Lin, who’d been contributing to the Fast & Furious franchise since 2006’s Tokyo Drift, left Fast X after just one week of filming. Nearly two full years after this high-profile exit from one of the biggest 2023 movie releases happened, Lin has opened up about how he feels about it.

Lin stopped by the Happy Sad Confused podcast to do a watch-along of Tokyo Drift with host Josh Horowitz. Understandably though, Horowitz inquired about Lin walking away from Fast X, which was going to be his sixth time helming a Fast & Furious movie. The filmmaker started off by saying:

Although it’s never been officially disclosed why Justin Lin walked away from Fast X, it was reported shortly thereafter that “creative differences” were the cause, specifically that Lin wasn’t getting along with franchise lead Vin Diesel. Lin’s departure happened just days after he opened up to the Dominic Toretto actor about this movie was setting up “the beginning of the epic end,” as the main Fast Saga is racing towards its conclusion. The Transporter’s Louis Leterrier ended up sitting in the Fast X director’s chair following Lin’s exit, and he’ll continue carrying out those duties for Fast & Furious 11.

Things didn’t work out for Lin on Fast X, but clearly he’s not holding any grudges, and he’s also fine with his Fast & Furious movies being the most prominent entries on his resume. And while his time with this blockbuster franchise is done, he nonetheless thinks too much attention was pointed to his exit, as well as noted that he continued to be supportive to those who kept working on the movie:

Justin Lin is still credited as a writer and producer on Fast X, but because of his departure, that means F9 remains the last movie he directed. However, he has some big movies coming up. In June 2022, it was announced that he’s directing and producing a film adaptation of the popular anime One-Punch Man, though it was clarified by February 2023 that he would make The Last Days of John Allen Chau first. Then this past December, word came in that he’ll work with Daniel Craig and Charlize Theron on a heist thriller called Two for the Money. 

The point being, we can expect more great things from Justin Lin going forward, and meanwhile he’ll keep cheering on the Fast & Furious film series as it continues down this final lap. Fast X can be streamed with a Peacock subscription now, and Fast & Furious 11 races into theaters on April 4, 2025.

If you look over Daniel Craig and Charlize Theron’s resumes, both actors are quite experienced when it comes to performing in some of the best action movies. Daniel Craig in particular has shined in this area by starring in five of the James Bond movies (though he nearly passed on playing 007), while Theron’s bonafides in this genre include Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard. Well, now word’s come in that these two will be teaming up with the Fast & Furious franchise’s Justin Lin for a heist movie, and I need this flick to come out ASAP.

This movie, titled Two for the Money, will see the actors playing two career thieves whose relationship revolves over the course of three big jobs. As shared by THR, the heist thriller just got snagged by Apple Original Films following what’s described as a “multi-studio bidding war,” meaning that while it’s unclear whether or not the movie would get a theatrical run, Apple TV+ subscribers would eventually be able to view it. Dan Mazeau, who co-wrote Fast X with Justin Lin, is penning the script.

The publication also shared that in addition to his forthcoming directorial duties, Lin came up with the idea for Two for the Money with Mazeau while they were working on the 10th entry in the main Fast & Furious film series, which Lin departed from a week into principal photography. Afterwards, they pitched the idea to Charlize Theron, who plays Cipher in the long-running Universal Pictures franchise, and not only was she intrigued by “the story’s Cary Grant-Rosalind Russell snappy rapport vibe,” she suggested that Daniel Craig be her co-star. Lin and Mazeau then fully fleshed out their plans for Two for the Money after Fast X came out as one of the bigger 2023 movies releases.

While not all heist movie necessarily dip into the action genre, I have to think that with Craig and Theron being paired together, Two for the Money won’t be lacking in those sort of thrills. I was also surprised to learn that these two have never worked together before, so the sooner this Justin Lin-helmed project can get in front of my eyes, the better. Kudos to Apple for also shelling out for Two for the Money, as it’ll make a fine addition to the streamer’s library, which includes the recent releases Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon, both of which started off playing in theaters.

There’s a ways to go before Two for the Money starts production, but we here at CinemaBlend will keep you apprised on its progress. For now, Netflix subscribers can stream Daniel Craig’s most recent movie, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and keep their eyes peeled for Charlize Theron’s reprisal of Andy in The Old Guard 2. Apple’s next movie, Argylle, hits theaters February 2 on the 2024 movies schedule.

Last April, Fast X , which we know quite a bit about at this point, hit a major and surprising setback just as it began filming. Director Justin Lin made the “difficult decision” to step away from the film after having previously helmed the bulk of the movies in the long-running movie series. Thankfully for Universal (and its wallet), just a week later, it found a replacement in Louis Leterrier, as rumors involving leading man Vin Diesel began to swirl. Now, franchise veteran Michelle Rodriguez has recalled that in the time when the production was between directors, she and Charlize Theron actually managed to get a major scene together shot. 

Ahead of Fast X's nearly imminent release, Michelle Rodriguez is on the big screen once more as one of the stars of this weekend’s latest big-budget, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. While teasing her next project, in which she’ll once again reprise her role as the resurrected Letty, she revealed Lin’s exit did not disrupt her and Charlize Theron’s aim to shoot a serious scene teased in the trailer. In her words: 

During an interview with Vanity Fair, the actress shared that she and Charlize Theron, who is returning as Cipher in the latest installment, straight-up shot that fight sequence together -- without a director in place for the movie. A second unit helmer was there to help call the shots but, otherwise, the pair of badass actors took it upon themselves to get some filming amid the Fast & Furious film's filmmaker snafu. 

While revealing this detail, Michelle Rodriguez also tipped her proverbial hat to her fellow action star co-star for an incredible “work ethic” and being an all-around great scene partner. The two of them clearly train unbelievably hard for their action scenes in movies, and they’ll be having a big showdown in Fast X. Charlize Theron and Rodriguez have long histories of doing their own stunts for movies, with Rodriguez recently doing stunts for the D&D movie and Theron learning how to sword fight for The Old Guard 2 (and unfortunately having to take a shoulder injury like a champ). 

After Justin Lin’s exit from Fast X, Louis Leterrier had a whirlwind journey to the director’s chair which included him rewriting a ton of the script and heading to set just four days after getting the call from Universal to replace Lin. As Michelle Rodriguez explained, she and her co-star were able to keep “the train running” in the meantime. I imagine that was a pretty stressful time, but it's downright awesome to hear that the stars kept their heads and were able to keep things going.

You can see Michelle Rodriguez in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves now by heading to your local theater, and look forward to her return as Letty in Fast X, which arrives in cinemas on May 19 as part of the schedule of 2023 new movie releases.

Justin Lin’s abrupt departure from Fast X left devoted Fast & Furious fans shocked, and rumors of behind-the-scenes drama between him and franchise star Vin Diesel didn’t calm the fervor. Soon, the sudden turmoil subsided as the penultimate installment announced that Clash of the Titans filmmaker Louis Leterrier would take over for Lin. Of course, fans have wondered what it was like for Leterrier to step in and fill Lin’s shoes. After completing the film, the director of the upcoming Fast X revealed how he jumped into the role so suddenly.

Even though the Transporter 2 director was fresh to the car-themed franchise, he was welcomed by the Fast X cast and crew for bringing something new to the penultimate film. Leterrier had been an admirer of the Fast & Furious film series so he brought a wealth of knowledge to the tenth film. This impressed Vin Diesel enough to win his approval immediately. While the transition appeared to go smoothly, the filmmaker spilled to Total Film (via CBR) that taking over from Lin didn’t come easy.

Louis Leterrier was clearly prepared to straighten out any mess before hopping in the director’s chair. Of course, the The Takedown director was tossed into the lion’s den as the tenth installment was only days into production. He wasn’t only tasked with getting things back on track but taking over the F9 director’s vision and putting his stamp on the franchise’s conclusion. However, he seemed enthused to join the franchise as both a filmmaker and a fan. Hopefully his love for the decades-long franchise will translate to Dom Toretto and his crew's road to their final showdown.

Louis Leterrier has let his fan flag fly, as he’s been giving fellow & and Furious fans small tidbits here and there since joining Fast X. Without getting specific, the director did reveal that Charlize Theron’s Cipher is on the loose after F9, and the introduction of Jason Momoa’s vengeful Dante Reyes will unleash war as the fast-paced film series edges toward its finale. Of course, those revelations rose the stakes as seen in the epic Super Bowl trailer. Leterrier has done his part in hyping up the villain’s connection to Dom.

While Justin Lin won’t direct the final Fast & Furious films, he will remain a producer on Fast X, in addition to co-writing the film’s script. The film will feature Dom and his crew along with some returning familiar faces. Along with the addition of Momoa, Oscar winners Brie Larson and Rita Moreno joined the cast as new ally Tess and the Torettos’ grandmother, respectively.  Fortunately, fans won’t have to wait much longer for Leterrier’s vision, as the tenth installment will finally hit theaters on May 19.

In the meantime, get ready for Fast X by re-watching prior installments on streaming platforms. You rent/buy The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Fast & Furious, Fast Five and The Fate of the Furious through an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Get a Hulu subscription to watch Fast & Furious 6. You can watch The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift and Furious 7 with an active Peacock subscription, and don’t forget to catch F9 through an HBO Max subscription.

Director Justin Lin didn't wait very long to land a new directing gig after his surprising mid-production exit from Fast X, as it was reported last June that the filmmaker had signed on to make a live-action adaptation of the manga One-Punch Man. That movie is still very much in development, but it turns out that it won't be Lin's next directorial effort, as he will instead be going back to his indie roots with The Last Days of John Allen Chau.

News of this turn of events comes from Deadline, which says that Justin Lin will still make One-Punch Man, but that Sony is giving the director time to make another film while the in-the-works script goes through new drafts. Lin will be collaborating on the new drama with screenwriter Ben Ripley, who is best known for writing the sci-fi thriller Source Code starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the remake of Flatliners starring Elliot Page, Diego Luna, and Nina Dobrev.

The Last Days of John Allen Chau is based on a true story, and Ripley will be writing his script as an adaptation of an article of the same name written for Outside Magazine by journalist Alex Perry. The titular John Allen Chau was a missionary who believed that it was his purpose in life to bring Christianity to an uncontacted and protected tribe on an island in the Indian Ocean. As the title implies (so it's not exactly a spoiler), he was killed while on his mission.

Justin Lin is best known for directing Star Trek Beyond and the bulk of the Fast and Furious franchise (specifically Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Furious 6, and F9), but fans will remember that he got his start in the industry making the 2002 Sundance Film Festival hit Better Luck Tomorrow. The Last Days of John Allen Chau will be his first non-blockbuster since he directed Finishing The Game in 2007.

Though we are only learning about the new film today, it is coming together very quickly. According to the trade report, financing for the project has been secured and production on The Last Days of John Allen Chau is scheduled to start in the spring. The article doesn't make mention of a distributor, but if things go well, one has to wonder if the movie could be ready in time for the fall festivals and possibly the 2023 awards season.

While Justin Lin moves on to make both his indie film and One-Punch Man, Fast X remains scheduled to be released this spring. Filmmaker Louis Leterrier replaced Lin shortly after his exit from the production, and the blockbuster sequel starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, and more will be in theaters everywhere on May 19.

With five Fast & Furious movies under his belt, Fast X was being lined up as director Justin Lin’s sixth contribution to Universal Pictures’ car-centric franchise. However, one week into production, Lin exited Fast X, and The Incredible Hulk’s Louis Leterrier was brought in as his replacement. Almost two full months since that directorial shakeup, it’s been which big blockbuster will turn his attention to next: the One-Punch Man movie.

Back in 2020, it was announced that a live-action adaptation of the One-Punch Man manga was in development at Sony Pictures, with Venom and Jumanji: The Next Level duo Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner being tapped to write the script. Per Deadline, Justin Lin has now come aboard to both direct and produce the One-Punch Man movie. This will be Lin’s first non-Fast & Furious directorial effort since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, and he’s currently working with Rosenberg and Pinkner on rewrites, with production intended to begin by the end of 2022. 

The One-Punch Man started off as a webcomic that launched in Japan in 2009, and an anime adaptation premiered six year later. The saga centers on Saitama, a superhero who’s able to defeat any opponent with a single punch. Because of his overwhelming power, Saitama struggles to find a worthy adversary amongst the villains and monsters he clashes with on a regular basis to keep Earth safe. One-Punch Man was created by the artist ONE, and when the manga made its way to the United States in 2015, the first and second volumes made the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list. It would later be nominated for an Eisner Award and Harvey Award.

As one would expect from a property this big, Justin Lin’s One-Punch Man movie is intended to be the start of a franchise for Sony Pictures. And while Lin certainly helped guide the course of the Fast & Furious saga, with One-Punch Man, he has the advantage of being looped in from the start, as opposed to coming in after someone else has already laid the foundation. Assuming One-Punch Man gets off the ground smoothly and starts filming by the end of the year, it’ll be Hollywood’s first live-action film adaptation of a manga/anime since 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel. However, there have been some stateside TV adaptations in the years since then, like the recently-canceled Cowboy Bebop and the upcoming One Piece, both of which hail from Netflix.

Speaking of Netflix, it’s worth bringing up that Sony Pictures had spent years developing a Masters of the Universe reboot, but last year, it was announced that Netflix acquired He-Man’s return to live-action (played by Kyle Allen) from Sony. For right now, One-Punch Man is firmly housed at Sony, and it sounds like this’ll get a theatrical release. Still, I can’t help wonder if there’ll come a point where Sony and Netflix will come to a new arrangement that sees One-Punch Man going exclusively to the latter platform too, especially given Netflix’s experience with manga/anime adaptations.

CinemaBlend will share any other major updates about Justin Lin’s take on One-Punch Man that come in, including who’s cast as the titular character. Meanwhile, catch up to speed on the rest of this year’s cinematic offerings with our 2022 release schedule.

In Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, audiences met the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Reed Richards (John Krasinski), leader of the Fantastic Four… well, a version of the Fantastic Four from a realm known now as Earth-838. And while that version of Mister Fantastic didn’t last very long against Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) – dying in one of the sequel’s most gruesome moments – Marvel clearly has plans for the family of superheroes. There’s a movie coming, despite some bumps on the road to production, and new rumors suggest that Kevin Feige is seeking a big name to helm the feature centered around the Fantastic Four.

This news comes from the Twitter account of Deadline senior film reporter Justin Kroll, who quotes a source saying that Marvel’s list of potential Fantastic Four directors remains long, and that this person would be “shocked” if the replacement for Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts was revealed before Labor Day. And the reason given for this lengthy deliberation is that Marvel President Kevin Feige, thrilled with the collaboration with Raimi, wants another big name in the director’s chair for Fantastic Four. As Kroll notes:

Kevin Feige will always have his input. But given the fact that Marvel Studios is juggling so many projects between planned sequels for Deadpool, the re-introduction of Blade, the multiple Disney+ programs, and whatever the future plan is for mutants, we can understand his unwillingness to commit to a younger filmmaker like Watts or Destin Daniel Cretton, and commit to proven directors such as Chloe Zhao, Raimi, or James Gunn. With that in mind, we’ve selected seven possible directors who’d fit that bill, and also be fantastic choices (pun intended) to lead the MCU’s FF into the future.

John Krasinski

This one’s easy. John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place movies established him as a tentpole director, particularly with the way the second installment raised the stakes and played with more budget. Krasinski just played Reed Richards in the Doctor Strange movie, and he and his wife Emily Blunt have been fan-favorite choices to play Reed and Sue for years. Hand this power couple the keys to the franchise, and let Krasinski make the sci-fi Amblin family picture he’s been chasing.   

Peyton Reed

This would be a fun callback for Marvel historians, as well as a reward to Peyton Reed for a “job well done” on the Ant-Man series. Before he stepped in and replaced Edgar Wright on the first Ant-Man, Reed had a pitch for a Fantastic Four movie that would have been set in the 1960s and blasted past the team’s origin story to begin with them as celebrity superheroes. He has a passion for the material, he’s a proven MCU guy… so is it time for his shot? 

Bryce Dallas Howard

The Jurassic World co-star is hearing her name attached to this franchise in two forms. Some would like her to be in contention for Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, and after her time in the Jurassic franchise concludes, she could transition over. But others (myself included) want to see her direct Fantastic Four for Marvel Studios, especially after the outstanding work she has been delivering in the Star Wars realm. Maybe Star Wars is her passion? But she has proven her talents as a filmmaker, and I’d love to see what she could do with the FF.

Bert & Bertie

This choice flies in the face of the theory that Kevin Feige wants a director with a name, but I so enjoyed the action work that Bert & Bertie did on the Disney+ series Hawkeye that I’d love to see them transition to Marvel features. Watch the Hawkeye episodes “Echoes” and “Ronin” to see what they are capable of, as well as their work on the pirate adventure series Our Flag Means Death. They’d be an exciting hire. 

Edgar Wright

Again, this would be Marvel giving someone a second chance – similar to the way they brought James Gunn back into the fold after hastily firing him from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Edgar Wright developed Ant-Man for Marvel, then left the project over creative differences. He’s only improved as a filmmaker and storyteller, and his most recent Last Night in Soho proves he can do 1960s kitsch if that’s still in the cards for Fantastic Four. Also, we’d probably get Nick Frost as Ben Grimm, and that sounds excellent. 

Justin Lin

Could the Fast & Furious’s loss be Marvel’s gain? Apparently after failing to see eye to eye with Vin Diesel, Justin Lin walked away from Fast X, and should drive right over to Marvel Studios to take on Fantastic Four. Lin delivered some of the best installments of the Fast franchise. He’s a skilled action director who also hit one out of the park when he helmed Star Trek Beyond for Paramount. A franchise filmmaker with loads of experience in action and science-fiction? That sounds exactly what Kevin Feige is looking for, so give Lin a call. 

Brad Bird

Some argue that Brad Bird already made the best Fantastic Four movie, but called it The Incredibles. The powers used by the Parr family in the two Pixar movies absolutely resemble those of the Fantastic Four, especially Elastagirl’s stretching and Violet’s force fields. So, would Bird want to retread old ground and do FF in live action? His filmography suggests a deep interest in sci-fi (Tomorrowland, The Iron Giant) and action (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol). And his announced feature 1906 lingers in development, meaning he might have time to transition to Marvel and give the FF a shot. 

How about you? Who do you want to see bringing Marvel’s first family to the big screen? Contemplate the question, and plan your trip to the theater for the other upcoming Marvel movies, starting with Thor: Love and Thunder in multiplexes on July 8.

On April 26, fans of the Fast & Furious franchise were hit with surprising news: director Justin Lin had exited Fast X just a week after principal photography began. Naturally Universal Pictures couldn’t waste anytime finding someone to replace Lin on the next Fast & Furious movie (especially given how much money it might be costing the studio), and word’s come in that this individual has been found. This also happens as rumors swirl around Lin’s reasoning for leaving the next adventure starring Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his family.

Let’s start off with the directorial update: Louis Leterrier has reportedly been lined up to fill Justin Lin’s shoes on Fast X. Leterrier is no stranger to action/blockbuster filming, having previously helmed Unleashed, Transporter 2 (starring Jason Statham, who plays Deckard Shaw in the Fast & Furious saga), The Incredible Hulk and Clash of the Titans, as well as worked on the TV shows The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Lupin. Variety shared that Leterrier “beat out numerous candidates for the job,” and schedules are being figured out so he can come aboard Fast X.

So assuming a deal is finalized, we can count on Louis Leterrier to take over the directorial reins on Fast X. It’s also a good bet he might do the same for Fast & Furious 11 given that that the two projects are shooting back-to-back, although I won’t rule out the possibility that Universal might look for another director to handle concluding the main Fast & Furious film series, especially if the back-to-back plan ends up being scrapped. Regardless, by joining Fast X, this means Leterrier will have two movies coming out in 2023, as he also helmed the live-action animated comedy Strays starring Will Ferrell, Jamie Fox, Will Forte, Randall Park and Isla Fisher.

As for why Justin Lin exited Fast X as its director (he’s still involved as a producer), this was initially attributed to “creative differences,” an all-too common reason used when creative minds depart from a project. However, according to a source who spoke with The New York Daily News, franchise star Vin Diesel is the reason for Lin’s departure, with this anonymous individual claiming that the Dominic Toretto actor “shows up late to set. He doesn’t know his lines. And he shows up out of shape.” The only way we’ll know for sure if this is true is if Lin someday explains his reasoning for deciding to step away from Fast X, but this wouldn’t be the first time there’s been some behind-the-scenes drama involving Diesel on the Fast & Furious franchise; just look at his feud with Dwayne Johnson.

Following Justin Lin’s Fast X exit, the movie’s main unit paused filming, while second unit continued filming in the United Kingdom. Once everything is properly arranged with Louis Leterrier, principal photography can get back on track. Had Lin remained on Fast X, this would have been his sixth time directing a Fast & Furious movie, having first worked on 2006’s Tokyo Drift and later helming 2009’s Fast & Furious, 2011’s Fast Five, 2013’s Fast & Furious 6 and last year’s F9. No plot details for Fast X have been revealed yet, but along with plenty of familiar Fast & Furious faces joining Vin Diesel on this next ride filled with crazy car stunts and explosions, Jason Momoa has been tapped to play a villain, and Daniela Melchior and Brie Larson have joined in undisclosed roles.

Fast X races into theaters on May 19, 2023. CinemaBlend will continue providing coverage on how its progressing, but in the meantime, check out the 2022 movie releases to plan your moviegoing experiences later in the year accordingly.

Fast X, a.k.a. Fast & Furious 10, only just started filming last week, but already the production has hit a major snag. It was announced yesterday that Justin Lin will no longer be directing the upcoming movie, which was supposed to be his sixth Fast & Furious movie. The search is underway to find a new Fast X director, but apparently Lin dropping the directorial reins could end up costing Universal Pictures a lot of money.

Following Justin Lin’s exit from Fast X (reportedly due to “creative differences,” although the split has also been described as “amicable”), the movie’s second unit team is continuing production in the United Kingdom, but the main unit is on pause until a new director comes aboard. According to sources who spoke with Variety, Universal Pictures having to replace the Fast X director in the midst of principal photography could end up costing the studio “upwards of $600,000 to $1 million a day.” Exactly how much will depend on if production on any major set pieces was already underway. Because Lin left Fast X so early into the shoot, that may have resulted in this not being as pricey as it could have been had he left later on down the road… pun slightly intended.

Another issue that might pop up as a result of Justin Lin leaving Fast X (which occurred just a few days after he shot a video with Vin Diesel about how this movie is “the beginning of an epic end”) is the rearranging of certain schedules. Specifically, Charlize Theron, Jason Momoa and Brie Larson are all high-profile actors attached to other franchises and projects, so any major delays to the Fast X shoot would require shelling out money to ensure they can stick around. That said, its been noted that because of the formality of Lin’s exit, i.e. the news being announced on the Fast & Furious social media channels, this likely means that Universal was given enough advanced notice, and thus had extra time to conduct its director search.

Who will be the person who takes over for Justin Lin on Fast X? That’s hard to say, although it’s doubtful it’ll be someone who’s already worked on the franchise. Furious 7’s James Wan, The Fate of the Furious’ F. Gary Gray and Hobbs & Shaw’s David Leitch are all busy on other movies, and The Fast and the Furious’ Rob Cohen not only hasn’t directed since 2018, he’s been accused of sexual assault by multiple individuals in recent years (2 Fast 2 Furious’ John Singleton died in 2019). So Universal Pictures will almost certainly have to bring in someone new to steer this Fast & Furious ship, and it’ll need to happen fast (and furiously) so that the extra costs don’t pile up too high.

As things currently stand, Fast X isn’t expected to move from its current May 19, 2023 release date, but if that changes or the production is hit with any other major setbacks, we’ll let you know. Until then, you’re welcome to stream F9 with an HBO Max subscription to ensure you’re ready for the next round of Universal’s car-centric mayhem.

The next Fast and the Furious movie hit a major setback this week when this bombshell dropped: Justin Lin will no longer be directing Fast X. After the cast reunited for the first week of production on the highly-anticipated upcoming movie release, it was announced that Lin, who recently helmed F9 alongside Tokyo Drift, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, was stepping away from the project as director-- with the hunt for a replacement on the way. The news has us looking at a recent social media post completely different. 

Just five days ago, Vin Diesel took to Instagram to share a quick video he took with Justin Lin on the set of Fast X. They had just finished their first week of production on the film. Here’s what the now former director told his Fast and Furious star when he asked him how he felt about reaching the milestone on set: 

Justin Lin played along with Vin Diesel’s social media video where they logged week one of Fast X. When the actor asked Lin for a comment on the project so far, the filmmakers simply said it was the “beginning of an epic ending.” He looked a tad caught off guard in the video. It definitely seems like Diesel had no idea Lin would leave the production in just a few days. 

As announced on Tuesday, Justin Lin decided to step away from Fast X due to “creative differences,” but will stay part of the production as a producer. The director released this statement with his exit: 

Lin is the most prolific director of the Fast and the Furious franchise, having helmed four out of the nine films thus far. As Fast X looks for a new director, the crew will reportedly continue to shoot its second unit footage, but otherwise production has been halted as executives and producers find its new leader of the charge. 

The title for the upcoming Fast and the Furious movie, Fast X, was announced by Vin Diesel one week ago to celebrate production beginning. Alongside Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Charlize Theron and Sung Kang will reprise their roles. There is new blood joining the Fast family in Aquaman’s Jason Momoa, who is playing a villain, along with Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson and The Suicide Squad’s Ratcatcher 2, Daniela Melchior. 

Fast X is expected to hit theaters on May 19, 2023 after previously being delayed a month late last year. Let’s hope the change of director does not stall it further. Check out You can check out CinemaBlend’s deep dive interview with Justin Lin on the ReelBlend podcast as we wait for the next movie’s new director. 

On April 20, the movie we simply referred to as Fast & Furious 10 for a long time began filming, and it was on the same day that it was announced that this next entry in the Fast & Furious franchise was officially titled Fast X. However, less than a week after that big news came out, Fast X has hit a setback: Justin Lin is no longer directing the upcoming movie.

Although Justin Lin will remain aboard Fast X as a producer and also co-wrote the script, word’s come in that the filmmaker has stepped away from his directorial duties due to creative differences. Here’s the statement Lin released about his exit that was shared by Deadline:

Deadline has also heard from insiders that while the Fast X crew will continue shooting second unit footage, production is being halted while executives and producers look for Justin Lin’s replacement. Discussions with some candidates are reportedly already under way, so it may not be too long until we learn who will take over the Fast X directorial reins. Lin’s exit also isn’t expected to result in Fast X being moved out of its current May 19, 2023 release slot. 

Fast X was supposed to be Justin Lin’s sixth time director a Fast & Furious movie. He first helmed 2006’s Tokyo Drift, then returned for 2009’s Fast & Furious, 2011’s Fast Five and 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. From there, Lin took a break from the franchise for several years, resulting in James Wan tackling Furious 7 and F. Gary Gray tackling The Fate of the Furious, and then Lin sat back in the director’s chair for F9. Altogether, Lin’s Fast & Furious movies account for more than $2.6 billion of the franchise’s $6.6 billion worldwide total.

No plot details have surfaced for Fast X yet, but along with Vin Diesel once again leading the charge as Dominic Toretto, the lineup of returning faces includes Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Nathalie Emmanuel, Sung Kang, Michael Rooker, Charlize Theron, Cardi B and Jordana Brewster (thank Diesel’s daughter for ensuring we see more of Mia Toretto). As far as newcomers go, Jason Momoa will play a villain who shares screen time with Theron’s Cipher, while Daniela Melchior and Brie Larson have been cast in undisclosed roles. Fast X will be the penultimate movie in the main Fast & Furious film series; the final entry, Fast & Furious 11 (or Fast X: Part 2, if you prefer), hasn’t been dated yet.

Rest assured that CinemaBlend will let you know whenever Fast X’s new director is announced. Until then, make sure your HBO Max subscription is in order so you can stream F9 and be ready to go when the events of Fast X unfold.

There aren't many rules in the Fast & Furious franchise (especially when it comes to the science of physics), but one of the principals of the movie series seems to be that the cast of every sequel needs to be bigger than the one in the previous film. Justin Lin's Fast And Furious 10 is now very much in the process of living up to that promise, as the project has not only added Jason Momoa to the ensemble as a new villain, but The Suicide Squad's Daniela Melchior is apparently coming aboard as well.

News of this developing casting comes to us from The Wrap, though the report doesn't exactly overflow with information about the actor's part in the upcoming blockbuster. It's unclear at present if she is going to be teaming up with Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto and the rest of the heroes, or if she is going to be aligned with Charlize Theron's Cipher – who has basically been the series' big bad ever since The Fate Of The Furious.

It's hardly surprising to see Daniela Melchior land a part in a project as big as Fast And The Furious 10. While you'd think it would be exceptionally hard to standout in an ensemble as fantastic as the one James Gunn put together for The Suicide Squad, Melchoir's turn as Ratcatcher II was beloved by fans and inspired spin-off chatter. The DC blockbuster was her first English-language project, having previously only worked on film and television productions in her home country of Portugal, but now she is considered one of the movie industry's brightest up-and-coming stars.

Since completing work on The Suicide Squad, Daniela Melchior has been busy with a pair of other projects. She has not only completed work on Camille Delamarre's upcoming action film Assassin Club, co-starring Henry Golding and Sam Neill, but she has also wrapped on Neil Jordan's new thriller Marlowe, with Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, and Alan Cumming. 

Directed by Justin Lin as his sixth entry in the franchise, Fast and Furious 10 will be the penultimate chapter in the long-running series. In addition to the aforementioned Vin Diesel and Jason Momoa, the blockbuster will also feature returning stars Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris and Sung Kang. It's unclear at present if the film will see Daniela Melchior reunite with The Suicide Squad co-star John Cena (who was the new heavy in F9), as his name isn't mentioned as part of the production in the new trade report.

The movie scheduled to start filming in the coming months, Universal Pictures has already dated Fast And Furious 10 for release on May 19, 2023. Stay tuned for more updates about the project's development (which will surely start pouring in soon), and head over to our 2022 Movie Release Calendar to learn about all of the features you can see while you wait for the blockbuster's arrival next year.

F9 hit theaters last summer, kicking off the endgame of the Fast and Furious franchise and, now, the family is gearing up for the final two movies. Fast 10 has been delayed slightly, but production is still moving forward. While the film series has gone through a ton of changes following Paul Walker’s death in 2013, the creatives have tried to keep his spirit alive. Now, ahead of the final film, director Justin Lin is looking back on his conversations with Walker regardin the franchise final installment. 

Justin Lin has played a significant role in transforming the Fast franchise into what it is today. The filmmaker recently spoke to Insider about the ending to the franchise during which Paul Walker came up. Lin, who was back in the saddle for F9, revealed that even years ago, the Brian O'Conner actor was curious about how things would be wrapped up:

Needless to say, the minds behind this film series have been mulling over its conclusion for quite some time. This conversation was more than likely during the making of the 4th movie in the franchise, which brought everyone from the original film back after Justin Lin’s Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Lin went on to mark the importance of the conversation and the reality of him, Vin Diesel and their colleagues finishing up the franchise with Paul Walker:

This has to be a bittersweet experience for the group of collaborators. It's sad that one of their own won't be with them to finish the journey, but his absence is sure to serve as a source of motivation as opposed to one of sorrow. And those ties definitely run deep.

Vin Diesel recently posted a sweet tribute to Paul Walker on the anniversary of his death and even walked Walker's daughter, Meadow, down the aisle at her wedding. Family is a significant part of the Fast franchise, and it clearly extends outside of the film, as the main cast has been a close-knit group for decades now. They've also kept Meadow involved involved in the movies is a fantastic way to keep her father's legacy alive. 

With only two more Fast films in the main series, we can be sure that everyone involved will be putting in serious work so that it concludes in an epic fashion. Vin Diesel is, of course, prepping for Fast 10 and looking better than ever. The crew and its fans have come a long way, and the conclusion that Paul Walker helped envision in 2008 is shaping up to be something special. 

Fast 10 is currently set to hit theaters on May 19, 2023.

No matter how many times viewers hear “family,” it is the bedrock of the Fast & Furious franchise. Offscreen, the word isn’t taken lightly either amongst the cast and crew, including Vin Diesel. Fans have gotten peeks at those relationships over social media. Diesel’s latest post may pull on fans’ heartstrings even more. The Fast & Furious impresario shared a touching moment between his son and Justin Lin.

The F9 star took to Instagram to share an intimate moment between Justin Lin and Diesel’s son. According to Vin Diesel, the photo came after a marathon session of pre-production talk on the final two Fast & Furious movies. Diesel came off as a proud dad as he spoke highly of his son and Lin’s interaction. To see why the Fast & Furious mastermind was so reflective, check out his post below:

The moment between Vin Diesel’s son and Justin Lin proved the Fast & Furious franchise might be well cared for once Diesel steps aside. The younger Diesel appeared to be just as invested in Dom Toretto’s story concluding on a good note as any Fast & Furious fan would. Especially since he spoke with Lin about why the final film is important to his father’s legacy. That conversation seemingly painted a future producer or filmmaker in the making.

But as Vin Diesel pointed out, Justin Lin was a true mentor at that moment. As Diesel explained, the F9 director was in the 18th hour of a 48-hour meeting session. He could’ve just told Diesel’s son he was busy, but he didn’t. At that moment, Lin saw a young person invested in a character and his father’s career. He just wanted to break down in the best way possible. As if Dom Toretto spoke through the actor as he referred to the F9 director as “family.”

Of course, family is just a saying in the Fast & Furious franchise but a way of life for Vin Diesel and his co-stars. Diesel has shown multiple times his cast members are his family. He is still close with late co-star Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow. The best of this family relationship is the bond between Diesel and co-star Jordana Brewster, who refers to him as her "big brother." She even talked about still grieving over the loss of Walker, years after his death. Even as the Guardians of the Galaxy star prepares to bow out, the family connection will hopefully remain intact afterward.

The moment between Justin Lin and Vin Diesel’s son revealed how much time and effort is going into Fast 10. Moviegoers will have to wait until April 7, 2023 to see what will be in store for Dom Toretto’s future for the final films. That family connection comes through as fans watch F9 on home media or stream on Vudu and Prime Video.

After doing just about everything that a motor vehicle based action franchise would be thought capable of, F9 actually did the thing fans had joked it should eventually do, it drove a car in space. Perhaps fittingly, in the same film it also has some fun at the expense of one of the biggest space based movie franchises, Star Wars. The movie has a sequence in which two characters verbally spar with each other using Star Wars references that goes on so long it's hard to not be a little overwhelmed by it. But director Justin Lin clearly enjoyed doing it, because he's a Star Trek fan.

The director of the most recent Fast & Furious movie, as well as the most recent Star Trek movie, was asked by Insider why the new film contains an extended Star Wars joke, where Charlize Theron's Cipher and Thue Ersted Rasmussen's Otto go back and forth over which Star Wars character Otto most resembles. Lin explains that part of the reason for the sequence is that he's known as the "Star Trek kid," saying...

In the sequence, in a conversation with the imprisoned Cipher, the character of Otto starts comparing himself to Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. He believes he's the hero of this story. However, Cipher says that he reminds her more of Yoda. Otto suggests this is because Yoda is a powerful Jedi. Cipher says it's because somebody else has their hand up his ass, referring to Otto's relationship with John Cena's Jakob Toretto. Needless to say Otto does not find this joke very funny anymore. But Cipher has his number.

It's not the only pop culture reference from Otto in F9, and so Justin Lin says that he felt the Star Wars joke made sense. And it seems that because he's always been a bigger fan of the other space franchise, he particularly enjoys taking good natured shots at the big one. Lin continues...

At this point, and especially on the big screen, it's hard to argue that Star Trek isn't running second to Star Wars, and when you're at the top of the heap, you should expect people to take shots at you. And it's not like the jokes in F9 were particularly mean spirited. He's just having some fun and while it's true that the joke here just...keeps...going, it's still pretty funny and it's something that anybody can laugh at regardless of which franchise they like more.

Every film in the Fast saga has stepped things up a notch, and that includes giving the ladies of the franchise more action and more of a voice. Jordana Brewster, who plays Dom (Vin Diesel)’s sister Mia Toretto, got to do her first major stuntwork in F9. As Brewster is an important member of the Fast family, it’s always exciting to see more of her, and Justin Lin’s Director’s Cut of F9 has her character joining the latest film much earlier in the story.

In the theatrical cut of F9, we first see Mia (Jordana Brewster) almost 40 minutes into the film. The rest of the crew has just survived a wild ride through a minefield and a disintegrating bridge experience, lost the Aries device to Jakob (John Cena), and is strategizing their next move. Dom (Vin Diesel) doesn’t appear too happy to see Mia, which is likely a combination of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) calling Mia without informing Dom, and Dom wanting to keep Jakob’s resurfacing a secret from Mia.

Alternatively, the Director’s Cut introduces Mia just over ten minutes into the film. After Letty takes off to join the crew on their mission and Dom stays behind with baby Brian, Mia arrives at Dom’s house the next morning. Her opening line is about wanting to see her nephew more often than for “world-saving emergencies” suggesting Dom called her to look after his son, Brian, while he joins the others on the mission. It’s a heartwarming scene between Jordana Brewster and Vin Diesel who have great sibling chemistry. Dom mentions their dad and Mia asks what’s happened, but all he gives her is “something he hopes he’s wrong about.”

This additional scene packs so much emotion and context. First, we rarely get a scene with only Vin Diesel and Jordana Brewster. They’re very sweet together. Mia is very intuitive and has a beautiful connection with her brother that she notices the moment his demeanor changes and gently checks on him while asking for more information without prying. The scene also adds more weight to Dom keeping the secret that their brother has resurfaced from his sister because he speaks with her face to face days before the information gets revealed to her. The audience has not yet met Jakob (John Cena) when seeing this exchange between Dom and Mia, so when we later meet him it clicks that this is what he wasn’t ready to tell her early on in the film.

The second time we see Mia in the Director’s Cut is the first time we see her in the theatrical cut. So when watching the Director’s Cut, Mia thanking Letty for keeping her up to date is much more emotional. But it’s also worth noting what the additional scene says about Dom. In the first scene, he was not sure that Jakob was involved, he only suspected. He may have rationalized not telling Mia until he was sure. But the second scene takes place after he was sure, and it’s clear he only told his crew about Jakob because they physically saw him. It seems he had no intention of sharing this with anyone but Letty. And that begs the question of why. We know his history with his brother isn't good, and it's a lot to process emotionally alone.

There is a ton more footage included in the Director’s Cut that will have you seeing other parts of F9 with a new perspective. F9: The Fast Saga is now available to purchase on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

Justin Lin joined the Fast and Furious franchise as the director of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He continued on to direct Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6 before leaving for a bit and now returning for F9: The Fast Saga. Lin has revealed that some of the shifts made in the franchise while he was away made for a difficult time writing F9, and one story detail took him months to decide.

Throughout the years, the Fast Saga transitioned from street racing films to the world of espionage, and while remaining action/adventure movies all the way through, F9 almost feels like a different genre than 2001’s The Fast and the Furious. Director Justin Lin also wrote F9, and it turns out that the lean into the sci-fi genre of the more recent films in the franchise caused some deep thought. Here’s what Lin shared in the F9 feature commentary, available with the film’s home release:

Justin Lin originally didn’t want to include a world-ending device in F9. Imagine the film without the Aries device! In the film, the device can allow the user to control all the world’s computers and weapons systems. It was split into two to keep this from happening, Jakob Torretto (John Cena), Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen) and Cipher (Charlize Theron) having one half and the Fast family finding the second half with the help of Mr. Nobody. Of course, the bad guys take possession of both pieces which is why we have a movie! I wonder what Lin had in mind for the story without the Aries device.

The feature commentary track is just one of many bonus features included in the home release of F9: The Fast Saga. Justin Lin provides all kinds of behind-the-scenes insight and stories from the set, and fans can also experience a day of Lin’s life while filming with the featurette A Day On Set With Justin Lin. Plus, the home release comes with the Director’s Cut of F9 which includes additional never-before-seen footage. F9 is now available on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

Having now directed five of the nine entries in the main franchise Justin Lin is Fast & Furious royalty. After leaving the series following the sixth film, Lin was brought back to direct F9, the latest entry in the series. And while the movie had many struggles thanks to the global pandemic, one area where the movie was a major hit with fans was that it finally produced "Justice for Han," or at the very least, began to be a start on that road. Many fans believe the most recent films had done Han's memory dirty, and had been calling for justice, and Lin says those calls for a change are exactly the reason that Han, and Lin, returned in F9.

The problem fans had was that when the Fast & Furious franchise retconned Han's death to be an intentional act by Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), which was fine on its own, the next movie The Fate of the Furious followed that up by making Shaw a part of the team, and inviting him to the celebratory barbecue at the end of the movie. That rubbed a lot of fans wrong, and Justin Lin says that when he first heard about it, he discovered just how upset the fans really were. In one of the special features attached to the new F9 Blu-ray Lin explains...

It's not an understatement to say Justice for Han was huge. A lot of fans who had grown to love the whole franchise and all the characters in it were somewhat shocked that the movie not only turned a villain who had killed one of the family into a hero, but it did so without so much as addressing that fact on the screen. At no point does any character say anything. At no point does Deckard Shaw so much as try to apologize.

According to Justin Lin, the reason there was never any explanation inside the movie itself was because...there wasn't one. Lin says that when talking to Universal and asking why this happened, nobody had an answer. Lin himself decided that the issue needed to be addressed in some way, and the best way to do so was to bring Han back to life. The director continues...

Justice for Han didn't necessarily mean bringing Han back to life. The issue wasn't that he died but the fact that his death was mistreated according to fans. And because they voiced their displeasure, something was actually done about it. Justice for Han has begun. Based on the post-credits scene in F9 it seems likely that there is more to this story, and maybe justice will finally be served in Fast and Furious 10.

If you can remember back to the before times, January 31, 2020, to be exact, the cast of F9 dropped the movie’s first trailer during a concert event. Cardi B was one of the performers, and it was revealed to fans that she also had a secret role in the film. A year and a half later, F9 crushed at the box office is now gearing up for its home release, which includes a Director’s Cut with an additional Cardi B scene and future possibility for her character.

Cardi B’s character Leysa helps Dom (Vin Diesel) escape after a fight with Jakob (John Cena). It’s clear that Leysa and Dom know each other, but not so obvious how she knew he would need the assist. Justin Lin’s Director’s Cut provides an answer by introducing Leysa a bit sooner. When Queenie (Helen Mirren) drops Dom off to meet Jacob, Leysa is among the partiers outside the building. She and Dom talk briefly, so when we see her again in the truck, we understand that she was there to help out from the beginning, enlisted by Queenie.

For those who didn’t quite catch Leysa and Dom’s prior connection from their brief conversation, director Justin Lin provides more detail in his commentary track available with the home release of F9. It turns out that Cardi B’s Leysa has a stronger connection to the Fast family than we may have thought, and Lin hopes he can explore more of her story in the future. Here’s what he says in his commentary:

As the Fast universe expands, it’s fun to see new characters get added into the mix who actually have been there all along. Similar to how John Cena’s Jakob existed from the beginning but isn’t introduced to the story until F9, Cardi B’s Leysa has been around since Fast and Furious. I’m totally down to see more Cardi B in future Fast Saga stories!

Another fun nugget from Cardi B’s additional scene in the Director’s Cut (beyond looking flawless in a stunning white dress) is one of her lyrics added to the script. Leysa greets Dom by asking, “Why is the best fruit always forbidden?” which fans will recognize as a popular lyric from Cardi B’s hit song “Girls Like You” with Maroon 5.

F9’s Director’s Cut has a runtime of a hundred forty-nine minutes. That’s about six minutes longer than the theatrical version, which may not sound like a lot, but when you factor in some scenes being 15-30 seconds, it’s quite a bit of extra footage that provides context for the larger film. You can get the Director’s Cut, feature commentary, and so much more when F9 zooms onto 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD September 21.

After a round of unforeseeable delays, F9 hit theaters this summer, thus shifting gears to wrap up the Fast Saga in the near future. So when will we see Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and the rest of the massive cast involved for Fast & Furious 10? Good news, we now have an official release date for the next movie, and the finish line is looking closer on the horizon.

It’s been announced that Fast & Furious 10 will hit theaters in a little under two years, with the release date of April 7, 2023, per Entertainment Weekly. It’s not a surprising date considering the 10th Fast film is not scheduled to begin filming until January 2022. Justin Lin is expected to once again helm the movie following his involvement in the franchise since 2009. It sounds like everything is coming together for the Fast Saga as its box office begins to die down at its $681 million worldwide haul.

F9 just finished its ninth weekend in theaters and has been available to stream on at-home digital platforms since late last month. The Fast & Furious movies are unsurprisingly top earners, and 2021 continues this trend. F9 is currently the No. 1-earning Hollywood film of the year and No. 2 on the domestic front (with Black Widow on top). Tenth and eleventh installments for the main Fast film series have been long in the works to complete the saga, and they are expected to shoot back-to-back starting in 2022.

So far, we don’t have a full picture of what the 2023 movie calendar will shape up like, but another Quiet Place movie is expected for a week before Fast & Furious 10 on March 31, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set for May 5, 2023. The latter gives Vin Diesel two major projects in the summer of 2023, as he will also reprise his role as Groot in the Marvel franchise.

If Fast and Furious 10 and 11 do stay on schedule and film back-to-back, it’s possible that the final film of the saga could get a release date in spring 2024. We’ll have to wait and see about the 11th film in the series, but we’re already looking at over 20 years of the Fast and Furious series here! The movies have been greatly defined by Dominic Toretto and the late Paul Walker’s Brian O’Connor, but over the years, the series has continued to welcome more to its cast.

The Suicide Squad star John Cena is the most recent addition to the Fast series as Dominic Toretto’s brother Jakob. Also, F9 reintroduced Sung Kang’s Han after calls for #JusticeForHan by fans of the franchise. We’ll keep you posted on how Fast & Furious 10 filming moves along, but for now, check out what new movies are coming this year with CinemaBlend’s 2021 release schedule.

Justin Lin and the Fast & Furious film series go way back. After helming 2006’s Tokyo Drift, Lin returned to helm Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6 and now the recently-released F9. So clearly Universal Pictures likes what Lin brings to the table with this franchise, but that doesn’t mean the studio and filmmaker haven’t had disagreements. For instance, Lin revealed that he argued with Universal about the title of Fast & Furious 6.

During his appearance on the ReelBlend podcast, when host Jake Hamilton inquired about whether Fast & Furious 10 would be stylized Fas10 (as in “Fas10 your seatbelt”), Justin Lin recalled his confusion over how the studio was advertising the sixth Fast & Furious installment vs. what he’d named the movie. In Lin’s words:

Going from Fast Five to Furious 6 is certainly a logical procession, but for some reason Universal wanted to go a more straightforward route with the 2013 blockbuster. This resulted in the “spirited” arguments between Justin Lin and Universal executives, although it doesn’t sound like this bothers Lin that much anymore. Frankly, I’m more bothered by the fact that 2017’s The Fate of the Furious wasn’t stylized as The F8 of the Furious. It’s right there!

Regardless, Justin Lin noted how they “have fun” choosing what to call each new Fast & Furious chapter, which he said originated from when he talked Vin Diesel into coming back for that Tokyo Drift cameo. The two men talked about the connections between the characters, and if another Fast & Furious movie were to be made, they didn’t want to repeat themselves, instead wanting to “evolve” the franchise. Lin continued:

No spoilers here, but F9 certainly lays the groundwork for Fast & Furious 10, which will be split into two parts. As for Fast & Furious 6, while there may have been a kerfuffle concerning what to specifically call the movie, it ultimately ended up being both critically and commercially successful, paving the way for its immediate two successors to both cross the $1 billion milestone.

Should you wish to revisit Fast & Furious 6, it’s currently streaming on Peacock. F9 is now playing in theaters, and we’ll be sure to let you know when both parts of Fast & Furious 10 are given release dates, along with any other major developments.

20 years ago, a small, but supercharged sedan known as The Fast and the Furious drove into theaters around the world. It didn’t have as much under the hood as it does now, but it had what it took to launch Vin Diesel, his co-stars, and his franchise into legendary status. With the latest film F9 opening with a flashback to 1989, director Justin Lin made a pretty fantastic choice to honor the franchise’s legacy: he used a more period-appropriate logo when introducing the Universal film.

As Justin Lin spoke with our own ReelBlend team to promote F9, the conversation shifted to whether the flashback sequences, featuring younger versions of Dom and Jakob Toretto, were shot on film. This led to Lin not only talking about how he did shoot those sequences using celluloid but also how he even tweaked his filming techniques to match up with the technology available at that time. This is why he chose to break out an older Universal logo, which as Justin Lin points out below, had its own pros and cons:

Movie buffs, this is where you’re going to have your own moment of justice. As it turns out, while this Universal logo is more period appropriate than the current variant, it’s still a little misplaced when you look at the studio’s history. If this were to be a perfect match, the big Toretto family flashback in F9 would have to happen at some point after May 25, 1990; the day that the logo first premiered in front of Back to the Future: Part III.

And if you’re wondering if this would work as a tribute to The Fast and the Furious’ 2001 release date, that logo was the design that debuted in front of 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Of course, arguing the timeline of studio logos pretty much goes against the sort of fast and loose chronology that F9’s respective series has always indulged in. Let’s not forget, 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift technically takes place after 2013’s Fast and Furious 6. But as you’ll see below, this slightly tweaked variant that hews closer to the 1989 time period still has that magic touch:

To borrow the immortal words of Fast Saga co-star Dwayne Johnson, when that old Universal logo makes itself known, it doesn’t matter if it’s totally period appropriate. By the time that classic 1990 Universal logo sails across the screen, grain and all, the audience is ready to sink into F9’s deep dive into the history of the Toretto family. Reviewing the box office results from this past weekend, one can easily prove that statement to be an accurate assessment.

If you haven’t had the chance to partake in the thrills of F9 for yourself, head over to your local theater and soak in that retro Universal magic. And if you’re ready for another adventure at the movies, take a look at our 2021 release schedule and stake out your next trip to the big screen.

The following story will contain very mild spoilers for F9, the new Fast & Furious movie that’s now in theaters. Proceed with caution.

It was a running joke. The Fast and Furious franchise has pulled off so many ridiculous stunts over the years, including dragging a safe through Rio de Janeiro and The Rock pushing a torpedo with his bare hands, that fans would say the only place for this franchise to go would be “space.” That’s the textbook answer for any franchise that has been around for this long. It’s how Jason ended up in the stratosphere for the tenth Friday the 13th movie. When F9 director Justin Lin came on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, though, he talked about his plans to try and practically film the space stunt in his movie… until he was told that he can’t.

In the F9 story, the reason that the team needs to get to space is so Tej (Ludacris) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) can access a satellite and shut down a crucial transmission that the film’s villain, Jakob (John Cena), needs to implement his evil plan. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew don’t have access to a shuttle. So they put Tej and Roman in scuba-diving suits and launch them into space in a Pontiac Fiero. I kid you not.

And while the bulk of the scenes involving Tej and Roman as astronauts use really good visual effects to pull it off, there was a time when Justin Lin -- who adores using practical effects whenever possible and tries to captures as much of his action in camera as he can -- explored the notion of coming up with a solution that would have allowed him to film a car in the atmosphere.

Justin Lin told ReelBlend:

Now, we asked Justin Lin to clarify whether or not he planned to put this Pontiac Fiero into the upper atmosphere with stunt performers or his actors IN the car! Because this is F9, so anything is possible. But he stopped us short, explaining with a laugh:

Ultimately, he had to back off. The cost, and the logistics, were going to be too much, and Lin already had so many other massive set pieces in store for F9, so he couldn’t possibly blow his entire budget on sending Ludacris and Tyrese to space. This time, anyway.

F9 got off to a very fast start on its opening night, and is expected to perform well all weekend. Welcome back to theaters, America. Your Fast family is waiting for you.

The newest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise is almost here, and while there's a lot that fans are certainly going to be surprised by, one of the film's biggest reveals has been known for over a year. The character of Han, played by Sung Kang, is back from the dead. Fans have wanted Justice for Han for years, and they're finally about to get it, though it seems Justice for Han could have taken a somewhat different form. Listen to the director's comments in the video above.

F9 director Justin Lin recently spoke with our own Reelblend podcast and the director reveals that it was during a train trip while scouting for locations that he ultimately decided that the solution for getting justice for Han was simply to bring back the character. Justin Lin explains...

The idea of "Justice for Han" is something fans have been wanting to see for quite some time. The character's death at the hands of Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw was one thing. The fact that Shaw then became part of the team was something that many fans took issue with. Clearly, Justin Lin also had issues, and he really wanted F9 to address all these outlying questions in some way, though even he wasn't quite sure what to do.

It sounds like, initially, Justin Lin's plan was simply to bring Han back in flashback and not actually reveal that Han had survived his car crash. But while on this trip and wrestling with the question, he made the decision to actually bring back Han. Of course, one assumes there will still be plenty of flashbacks, as F9 will need to explain just how Han survived the accident back in the third film.

Justin Lin doesn't explain what it was specifically on this trip that made him decide to bring Han back. As he tells the Reelblend crew, he was also dealing with the fact that he wouldn't be able to actually send a Pontiac Fierro in low earth orbit, though he apparently wanted to do just that.

Assuming that the explanation for Han's resurrection works well enough, it will probably be much more satisfying for fans then simply seeing him return in flashbacks. And it seems likely that it means Han will return once again in the tenth entry in the Fast & Furious franchise, that we still know is coming. At some point, there will likely still need to be a final confrontation between Han and Shaw in order to get true justice for Han.

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It’s sometimes hard to believe that the Fast & Furious franchise has actually been around for two decades now. True, the franchise has been heavily entertaining, but I don’t even think the stars of the franchise could’ve imagined that they’d still be playing their fan-favorite roles. Longevity also comes with a few challenges because, as the series grows, the creatives have to keep up with continuity. This is something veteran franchise director Justin Lin has to take into consideration whenever he’s at the helm of a movie. However, he may not be getting as deep as Vin Diesel, since it turns out the star actually has an entire board mapping out character threads.

As the lead actor and one of the driving forces (no pun intended) behind the Fast & Furious franchise, Vin Diesel probably knows everything about his beloved film series. Of course, having a board that maps out everything is always helpful. Justin Lin, who returned to the franchise with the upcoming F9, recently stopped by CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend Podcast to talk shop. This included shedding some light on how he and Diesel prepare using the actor’s massive board:

This may sound like it’s a bit much, but you have to keep with such a sprawling movie universe somehow. It’s honestly not surprising that Vin Diesel goes to such great lengths to keep the continuity in order. And this is only becoming trickier as the Fast & Furious franchise branches out with spinoffs like Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham’s Hobbs & Shaw. While on ReelBlend, Justin Lin went on to explain how much he considers the characters he’s not personally using while making a specific film:

Blockbuster movie producers can tell you that making sure things line up is easier said than done. I can’t even imagine the kinds of continuity conversations Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, Vin Diesel, Justin Lin and his collaborators seem to have things down pretty well for Fast & Furious.

With F9 just around the corner, fans are likely thinking about how the filmmaker was able to craft the return of Sung Kang’s Han Lue. After plotting that out, Vin Diesel’s board must’ve looked pretty crazy, but many seem to be more than excited to have the character back in the fold.

We’ll see how the Fast & Furious timeline continues to unfold when F9 roars into theaters this Friday, June 25. And ahead of the movie, you can head back to the very beginning by streaming The Fast and the Furious on HBO Max, which you can sign up for using this link.

Like one of its titular immortal characters, the Highlander franchise has lived many lives over the last several decades. It's been a film series, a TV series, even an animated series. However, we haven't heard much from the Highlander franchise since the ill-fated Highlander: The Source, the second feature film based on the TV series, failed to connect with audiences. However, the attempts to reboot Highlander from scratch began almost immediately after that film flopped. And, now the Highlander reboot looks like it may actually happen with Henry Cavill.

The attempt to reboot Highlander began back in 2008, and now, over a decade later, it looks like the movie might finally happen, now that Henry Cavill has officially signed on to star in the new film. Considering that Cavill wasn't the household name he is today back when this all started, it shows just how far things have come. Here's a look back the long road for the Highlander reboot and everything fans went through to get here.

Fast and Furious' Justin Lin Was Originally Set To Direct

After announcing back in 2008 that a reboot of Highlander was in the planning stages, it was revealed in the fall of 2009 that Justin Lin, then coming off the success of the fourth Fast & Furious movie, had been hired to direct. A couple of years later however, when Lin was even bigger following the smash success of Fast Five, he revealed he would not direct the movie, but would stay on as a producer (though he does not appear to be anymore). The hunt then began for a new director.

Highlander Found A New Director In A Zombie Franchise

With Justin Lin now on board as a producer, things actually seemed like they might be moving quite quickly. Only about a month after Lin announced he would not direct the reboot, 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was confirmed to be helming the film. However, it seems that Fresnadillo and Summit entertainment, the company that owns the Highlander license, ultimately didn't see eye to eye on film, and about a year after signing on, Fresnadillo left the project.

Ryan Reynolds Was Originally Set To Star

In between director number two entering and leaving the picture, however, the Highlander reboot did at least have somebody they were looking at to play the lead. In May of 2012 the word was that Ryan Reynolds was on board to play the film's hero. This was post-Green Lantern but pre-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds, so he may have been looking for a franchise to call his own. However, like the director, this wouldn't last, as just over a year later Reynolds left the project.

Director Number Three Directed Chris Hemsworth Instead

After two directors walked away from the Highlander reboot, and there was no longer any star, the movie tried to start over with an entirely new director. Cedric Nicolas-Troyan had never directed a film himself before. His biggest gig prior to Highlander had been as the second unit director on Snow White and the Huntsman. He signed on in 2013, five years into this whole thing. It's not even entirely clear when he left, but it was likely prior to 2016, as that's when Nicolas-Troyan directed the The Huntsman: Winter's War instead

Tom Cruise Was Approached For A Role, And Could Maybe Still Appear?

Producers were looking for cast at the same time they were looking for directors and it has to be said the Highlander reboot wasn't afraid to aim high. In 2014 it was confirmed that Tom Cruise had been approached, not to play the movie's hero, but rather to play the role of the Highlander's mentor, the same role played by Sean Connery in the original film. Nothing ever came of this one way or the other, and there wasn't even a final script at the time, so if Cruise was even a little interested, it's at least possible this could be revisited.

Dave Bautista Was Going To Play The Villain, And Maybe Still Could?

Following on the news that Tom Cruise was being courted for Highlander, came news in early 2015 that the film had found its villain in Dave Bautista. Bautista certainly fit the mold of The Kurgan, the villain played by Clancy Brown in the original film, so the idea had merit. The casting was never officially confirmed, and this was over five years ago, so even if Bautista was on board then, there's no guarantee he still is. But, as with the Tom Cruise report, there's always the possibility this could still happen.

Highlander Found Its Final(?) Director In The John Wick Franchise

After the game of musical chairs that was finding a director up to this point, things finally seemed to settle down in 2016 when yet another director came on board. This was Chad Stahelski, one of the co-directors of the original John Wick, who has remained as the director of all the subsequent sequels. The good news here is that, while it's been five years since Stahelski sighed on, he's still on board, which implies he's in for the long haul.

The Writers Of Twilight and Iron Man Tried To Pen The Script

As with directors and stars, Highlander went through a variety of writers as well as trying to find the right story for the film. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who wrote the original Iron Man, penned the original draft of the script. Cormac and Marianne Sellek Wibberley, who wrote the National Treasure movies also did some work on it. At one point, Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote the screenplays for the Twilight movies was also involved. What appears to be the working script however, was written by Rampage writer Ryan Condal in 2018. Alex Cross writer Kerry Williamson is also credited.

Finally, The Movie Found Its Highlander In Henry Cavill

The word that a script was done three years ago is basically the last thing we heard about the Highlander reboot until a couple of weeks ago when it was reported, and eventually confirmed, that Henry Cavill, Superman himself, had signed to play the lead. While this certainly doesn't mean the movie is set to go into production anytime soon, and until cameras role anything is possible, especially these days, it is the best sign to date that after more than a decade a new Highlander movie may actually happen.

At this point the biggest hurdles to the Highlander reboot may no longer be the movie itself, but rather that director Chad Stahelski has a couple of John Wick movies he's supposed to direct very soon. If the Highlander movie can wait a little while, however, this project may prove that it is, in fact, immortal and worthy of the name Highlander.

The coming release of F9 brings the highly anticipated return of Sung Kang’s Han Lue following the social media movement #JusticeForHan. Since the F9 trailer shockingly revealed Kang’s involvement in the next Fast and Furious movie and promised “justice is coming” for the Tokyo Drift character, the plotline has become one of the most hotrod topics of the coming film that coincides with director Justin Lin’s return to the franchise.

Justin Lin brought Han, who'd first appeared in his film Better Luck Tomorrow, into the Fast and Furious fold in 2006 for Tokyo Drift. Although the character died in his first foray into the Fast franchise, the character has been part of each of Lin’s movies from the series including 2009’s Fast & Furious, 2011’s Fast Five and 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. For the two movies in the main Fast & Furious film series Lin has been away, fans have been campaigning for #JusticeForHan, and we’ll seemingly get it for F9.

The director spoke about his beloved character during his interview on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, sharing how he felt about the movement following his prior exit from the series:

As the trailers tease, Han Lue looks to be in fact alive following two major scenes in the series that show him dying in a car crash at the hand of Jason Shatham’s Deckard Shaw. We don’t yet know how Sung Kang’s character is back and snacking about, but F9 is expected to answer the call fans shouted out. Justin Lin spoke about his reaction to the movement with these words as well:

It’s important for good characters to be treated well. It’s not been fair to see Statham’s Shaw to receive redemption for his actions and a much more pivotal Fast and Furious character to be left out or given proper justice. Along with Han’s mysterious return, F9 will explore real family with the introduction of John Cena’s Jakob Toretto, who is the brother of Vin Diesel’s Dominic.

F9 is a massive chapter for the long-running franchise. Along with Justin Lin and Sung Kang back for the action, it will also star Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell, Ludacris and Cardi B. The movie has received mixed to positive reviews from critics ahead of its June 25 release date and a planned tenth and eleventh film.

People come and go through the Fast and Furious saga, whether it’s characters on the screen, or filmmakers in the director’s chair. Justin Lin, for example, returns to the franchise after sitting out Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious, and he’s making sure that Sung Kang’s thought-deceased racer Han is able to come back to the mix. Knowing that the Fast saga is working its way to a two-part finale that is expected to close off this segment of the story, the ReelBlend podcast wanted to know if The Rock was on the “table,” so to speak, in terms of coming back for the conclusion, and Lin tells us why he thinks that’s possible in the exclusive clip above.

Anyone reading this likely knows that the Fast and Furious Saga experimented with a high-profile spinoff when it branched the two characters of Hobbs (The Rock) and Shaw (Jason Statham) into their own movie. It explored the cultures and backgrounds of the diametrically opposed protagonists, but really was just an expensive excuse to have director David Leitch blow a lot of shit up while Rocky and Statham hurled insults at each other.

But if the Fast saga were to come to some natural conclusion in a two part Fast 10 (or FasTen Your Seatbelts, as ReelBlend co-host Jake Hamilton swears it needs to be called), then it would be a missed opportunity not to have Dwayne Johnson play some part in the finale. As I noted in the interview clip above, I think bringing The Rock into the franchise for Fast Five was exactly the invigorating jolt that the series needed at that time, and his attitude was a perfect fit for the in-on-the-joke franchise.

Now, behind the scenes, there have been rumors and stories run regarding The Rock having potential beef with some members of the Fast “family” (both Vin Diesel and Tyrese), and harsh words have been said over social media that many assumed led to the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff. So maybe a few egos would need to be massaged before Dwayne Johnson rejoined the “family,” But in terms of the storytelling practicality of it, F9 director Justin definitely sees Hobbs as an option, telling CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast:

So we will soon be able to see what Justin Lin has in store for his beloved Fast and Furious cast when F9 opens in theaters on June 25. Unless you are reading this from an international market, where the movie has been screening since May 19. Don’t spoil the ending for the rest of us!

Director Justin Lin joins the show to discuss F9: The Fast Saga, the latest in the Fast and Furious franchise, starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and the rest of the fam. He discusses opening the film with a vintage Universal Pictures logo, shooting on film, weighing practical effects with visual effects and more.

This week, we also review Disney Pixar’s Luca, Netflix’s Fatherhood (starring Kevin Hart), and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek). John M. Chu’s In the Heights failed to meet expectations a the box office its opening weekend. We discuss why that might be, and the future of HBO Max’s release strategy.

Timestamps (approx. only)

3:25 - Weekly Poll

6:48 - Bo Burnham’s Inside

15:58 - Justin Lin Interview

39:11 - In the Heights Box Office

54:43 - Tick, Tick…Boom! Trailer

1:13:44 - Favorite Ian McKellen Movies

1:31:05 - Outro

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Fast and Furious 9 is almost upon us, and the series about family, cars, and explosions has already pushed the series past a major blockbuster milestone. F9 has screened, and you can see what people are saying about the latest entry in the Fast and Furious franchise. F9 will feature the return of Sung Kang’s Han, who has always been a fan favorite, as well as Michelle Rodriguez performing some wild motorcycle stunts. Director Justin Lin has been so influential throughout the entire run of films, and he has recently explained how Vin Diesel convinced him to return for F9.

Justin Lin keeps returning to the Fast and Furious franchise, and he has been integral in the evolution of the series since Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Justin Lin has returned to the series in F9 and couldn’t be happier to back in the series he has been a part of in various capacities since 2006. On IMBDs “Movies That Changed My Life” podcast, Justin Lin explained how Vin Diesel convinced him to return for Fast and Furious 9, saying:

Justin Lin says that he felt like he did all he wanted to do in The Fast and Furious universe. Lin recalls Vin Diesel calling him while he was editing Star Trek, wanting to talk about Dom’s character and where he is at in the story. Justin Lin had some reservations about the call because he was done with the franchise, but Diesel turned out to be very convincing.

Justin Lin says his return to the franchise was very organic and started with Vin Diesel wanting to go through Dom’s evolution as a character. Lin says he was finally convinced to come back by Fast and Furious fans who had seen the most recent movie and that everywhere he would go, he would get asked his opinion on the franchise. One day he woke up with an idea of a part of the Fast Family they haven’t fully explored yet, which led to him returning to direct F9.

Justin Lin has already explained why he keeps returning to the franchise, but this gives more context as to what drove him to return was that he felt there was unfinished business and an important story to tell. Justin Lin’s son is even getting in the mix, helping contribute to a wild F9 stunt. The Fast and the Furious has always been about family, and now the children of the stars and directors are getting in on it, meaning 20 more years of Fast movies is on the horizon.

Many fans are watching all the Fast movies before F9 comes out. Love it or hate it, Fast and Furious 9 will likely be a major hit. And as more people are returning to theaters, this bodes well for other movies that are preparing for release. It’s a great excuse to finally get back into theaters and see a film that is perfect for the big-screen experience.

Over the last 20 years there has been an odd ebb and flow in the quality level found in the various titles of the Fast & Furious series. The first movie is essentially a Point Break rip-off with street racing, and it was followed by a terrible part two, but then things took a surprising turn for the exciting and flashy with Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift. The third sequel, Fast & Furious, proved to be a step in the wrong direction, but then the franchise truly took off, with Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7 successfully retooling the brand and transforming it into an amazing blockbuster powerhouse. Sadly, however, that amazing run was brought to an abrupt end in 2017 by The Fate Of The Furious, which is too excessively dumb and messy to be any fun.

This now brings us to F9. Justin Lin, having stepped away from the last two chapters in the series after directing three of the four best sequels, is back in the director’s chair, and that fact alone has given fans hope that the movie would return the quality level of the series to its previously established high water mark. Unfortunately, that has not proven to be the case. While there is still plenty of crazy action that is easy to appreciate, lame and lazy plotting wind up taking a serious toll on the entertainment value, and it becomes actively hard to care about anything because the concept of “stakes” gets thrown out the window. It’s far from a nadir for the brand, but sits comfortably in the bottom five when ranking the films.

Not helping anything is that a good portion of the plot, scripted by Daniel Casey, feels cribbed from Furious 7 with some slight alterations. Once again we find our lead characters out of action and trying to live semi-normal lives, with Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) staying off the grid while they raise their son, but that peace is interrupted when Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) arrive to pull them back into the spy game. After receiving a mysterious distress message from Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), the team discovers that there is another bland, technology-based MacGuffin floating out in the world that they have to make sure stays out of the wrong hands (while Furious 7’s God’s Eye allows anyone to be tracked, this new thing, dubbed Project Ares, can bluntly just take control of anything with computer code).

Of course, the reason why it has to be Dom and his crew who get involved is because the situation is personal, as said wrong hands in this particular case happen to belong to Jakob Toretto (John Cena), Dom’s estranged brother. As illustrated through intermittent flashbacks that break up F9’s action, the siblings had a falling out in the aftermath of their father’s death when they were teenagers, but over the years both wound up taking paths to becoming international superspies. Jakob is eternally resentful and jealous of Dom, and this also apparently puts him in a mind space for giving world domination a whirl.

Story has never been a strong suit of the Fast & Furious franchise, but F9 still manages to feel undercooked.

It’s rarely a good sign when a franchise needs to go the route of digging up mysterious/long-lost relatives as tired plot devices (Jason Bourne, Austin Powers: Goldmember, and Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker are three titles that immediately spring to mind), and F9 is a film that does nothing to improve that cinematic legacy. What’s more, it actually seems like a joke when you consider the ridiculous emphasis that all of the movies have put on the concept of “family” over the years (how is it possible that neither Dom nor Jordana Brewster’s Mia ever brought up that there is another Toretto brother?). It smacks of being the first idea that someone came up with that nobody tried to improve on because it was perceived as an easy shortcut to advance themes we’ve seen throughout the series – and adding insult to injury it also winds up being a disappointing use of John Cena, who has to put a lid on all of his charisma so that he can seem like a relative of Vin Diesel’s.

The introduction of Jakob isn’t F9’s only character-centric issue, however, as sloppiness in the writing is something that winds up infecting much of the ensemble beyond the core six characters. One of the best developing aspects of this franchise has been its ability to constantly expand its roster of stars, but almost all of the attempts made here to rope familiar faces into the plot are thin. This is particularly true when it comes to Helen Mirren's Magdalene "Queenie" Shaw (who gets one (1) exposition and one (1) car chase) and Charlize Theron’s Cipher (who spends 90% of her screen time making snappy comments while trapped in a plastic box), but sadly it also extends to the reintroduction of Sung Kang's Han Lue, who is provided an explanation for how he’s not dead that can only be described as comically convoluted.

There are plenty of eye-popping and creative action sequences in F9 that fans will dig.

While F9 struggles to keep its narrative flowing, the bread-and-butter material is still on-point, as the action scenes are hard to watch without a smile and an appreciation for the absurdity. Save for one sequence late in the film that I won’t go into details about for spoiler reasons, the movie isn’t quite able to hit some of the extreme highs of past sequels – such as the safe drag in Fast Five, the highway tank chase in Fast And Furious 6, and the skyscraper jump in Furious 7 – but there is plenty of fun to be had. Not a whole lot of it makes any considerations for the laws of physics, but it’s pretty damn enjoyable to watch a car swing around on a cable off of a cliff and see powerful magnets flipping vehicles left and right.

F9 hits an inflection point where it becomes really hard to care about the characters.

All that being said, there should be a hard line drawn between “fun” and “exciting” when discussing F9’s biggest sequences, because the movie also exposes a tough franchise problem: there are no longer any stakes left in the Fast And Furious universe. There’s a running gag in the film that sees Roman questioning the nature of his existence and whether or not it’s possible he is invincible – and while it has the cadence of the joke, it also feels like subconscious recognition of a sizable issue. To use an example from the movie, there’s nothing thrilling about watching a car chase through a minefield when magically only the vehicles being driven by the bad guys are getting decimated, and the heroes experience zero injuries or mechanical failures.

It’s not just an action problem, as it is something that weighs heavily on the substance of the plot too. Bringing Han back to life works as pure fan service, but it also undercuts the emotional impact of his passing (albeit the whole point of the #JusticeForHan campaign was that there really wasn’t much emotional impact to be found in the last two movies anyway). Furthermore, it’s really hard to take Jakob seriously as a villain thanks to the combination of flashbacks clearly readjusting the context of his relationship with Dom, and the franchise’s history introducing big action stars as antagonists (ex. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham) and then ultimately realigning them for the future.

There are going to be plenty of people, specifically the die-hards, who love F9 unconditionally like they do with all of the entries in the series – but the more discerning fans not willing to throw around free passes aren’t going to find the same kind of satisfying experience. It’s been repeatedly demonstrated in the past that there are fun, clever, and thrilling stories to be told in this world with these characters, but there needs to be more to the movies than what’s on screen here. Clearly some key lessons were not taken from The Fate Of The Furious, but we can keep our fingers crossed that the next chapter will be able to right the ship.

The Fast & Furious franchise has been with us for two decades now and, as a result, Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his crew (or “family”) have become mainstays within the world of cinema. But of course, the bulk of these installments have happened under the watchful eye of director Justin Lin. With five Fast & Furious installments under his belt, Lin is practically a pro at this point and has overseen some of the franchise’s biggest moments. So what keeps the filmmaker coming back to the fan-favorite film series? Well, he’s now provided some insight on the matter.

Justin Lin made his Fast & Furious debut with 2006’s Tokyo Drift and would direct every subsequent installment through 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. However, Lin has now returned for the highly anticipated F9 and, during a recent interview with the Associated Press, Lin reflected on how he got involved with the latest film and opened up about how it symbolizes his reasoning for sticking with the franchise:

Based on his comments, it would seem that Justin Lin has forged a deep relationship with lead actor Vin Diesel and, when you’ve been through as much as they have, you can understand why. A lot of work goes into making the Fast & Furious franchise what it is, and the filmmaker and actor have been in the trenches together for years now. With this, a kinship was bound to form between Lin and Diesel, and it’s been nice to see.

To say that Justin Lin’s direction has become a key part of Fast & Furious would be an understatement. He’s overseen some of the franchise’s most insane stunts, including an insane sequence in F9 that his son helped with. Of course, he’s also managed the characters, helping to determine when to bring back familiar faces and how to write around major characters that are no longer around.

Of course, F9 won’t be the end of the road for Justin Lin, as he’s set to return for the final two installments in the main Fast & Furious franchise. Details on the films are scarce at the moment, but Vin Diesel is already teasing some cool things. Lin has a tough challenge ahead of him, as he’ll be tasked with closing out an iconic saga. Nevertheless, he’s proven he has the know-how to end things on a high note.

Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, though, as we’re still waiting to see Justin Lin’s latest contributions to Fast & Furious in F9. And with the director having been away from the franchise for so long, franchise devotees are excited to see what he does in his return.

F9 roars into theaters on June 25.

When you think of Fast and Furious, the classic sitcom The Golden Girls may or may not come to mind. One is a film series built around fast cars and death-defying stunts while the other centered around four women in their golden years living, loving and eating together. But it seemed the latter informed the former. Fast and Furious director Justin Lin revealed the valuable lesson he took from The Golden Girls.

The Golden Girls may be remembered for its memes and one-liners, but those women were a family until the very end. You can see some of that in the Fast and Furious films. According to F9 director Justin Lin, that’s on purpose. Lin revealed how the classic NBC sitcom inspired the franchise’s team-up factor:

For Fast Five to be influenced by those specific NBC sitcoms, it proved just how much television influences film. Much like Justin Lin, I vividly remembered watching those episodes as a kid. Knowing the film franchise was influenced by The Golden Girls added an unexpected yet welcomed layer.

The NBC lineup Justin Lin referenced ran from 1991 to 1992. The Golden Girls ran from 1985 to 1992 on the network before being joined by Empty Nest in 1988 and Nurses in 1991. The latter two sitcoms ended in 1995 and 1994, respectively.

To add some more Golden Girls nuggets in the mix, Justin Lin said he would love to add America’s favorite Golden Girl Betty White to the Fast and Furious cast. Surprisingly during his Entertainment Weekly interview, the F9 director let out his fanboy by showing off his Golden Girls-themed mug. Nice to know that there are still those Golden Girls devotees out there. It would be great to see White interact with the "family" or Queenie Shaw aka Helen Mirren.

As a Golden Girls fanboy myself, I can relate to Justin Lin drawing inspiration from the beloved sitcom. The dynamic between Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sofia allowed each woman to stand on her own while acting as a chosen family compared to an actual family. That’s the same characteristic that makes the Fast and Furious franchise so beloved (besides the outrageous car stunts). The love and affection between both casts love both on and off-screen. That’s obvious by the Fast and Furious cast’s social media interactions.

The family aspect of the Fast and Furious franchise will be on full display with the return of Han Lue and Sean Boswell in F9. The much-anticipated ninth installment will arrive in theaters on June 25.

Ever since Dominic Toretto started talking about the importance of family in the ever popular Fast Saga, it’s been both a core component to the story being told and the way that these films have come together. F9 is about to prove both halves of that equation are still valid, as Vin Diesel’s franchise frontman is about to clash with his little brother, played by John Cena. And part of their conflict includes a wild stunt planned by director Justin Lin’s own son.

The specific F9 stunt we’re talking about is a moment from the first trailer released for the movie, where Cena’s Jakob Toretto defies the laws of physics, thanks to an assist from Charlize Theron’s Cipher, and “a magnet plane”. Seeing as the franchise already proved that “cars can’t fly,” so much as they can glide between skyscrapers, Justin Lin was stuck on how to get Jakob from point A to a point B too far to jump through conventional means. Which lead to his son helping plan out the eventual solution, which Lin then revealed to Empire:

At eight or nine years old, Oqwe Lin already seems to be ready to continue the family business of total car-nage, as that F9 fix led to even more excitement shown in that sequence. With F9 revving up its engines for the delayed, but still monumental debut this summer, it’s once again time to hear stories of how the series is wildly progressing towards its potentially two-part finale in F10. Between this magnet plane anecdote, and the fact that we’re probably seeing Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) blasting off into space, everything does seem to be on the table.

Through magnets, a lot of things are possible in the F9 world. We’ve seen cars pushed aside because of gigantic electromagnets in the second trailer for June’s coming attraction, on top of the magnet plane that started this attractive path of destruction. Should you want to see Oqwe Lin’s F9 invention at work, take a look at the first trailer from last year, and pay close attention around the 02:46 mark to see how this sequence looks like it’ll play out:

Magnets, bridges, and all sorts of methods that push the boundaries of science are present in F9, and June 25th could be the day that we see gravity, and the box office, defy expectations. And a hearty congratulations must go to Justin and Oqwe Lin, as they may have just helped ensure the history of the Fast Saga with their partnership. Whatever they’re hiding behind the curtain on this one has to be insane!

I remember back when Fast Five came out a decade ago and thinking that the Fast & Furious franchise can’t possibly be coming back for another film. Well, now that we’re 20 years and soon-to-be 10 films deep into the Fast & Furious franchise, I can admit that I was flat out wrong. If people were skeptical of the longevity of this franchise then, they know better now, because has it grown! Even more big stars like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham have joined in, and the two have even now led their own spinoff. But that doesn't mean we've seen the last of them, as F9 director Justin Lin recently talked about how the two could fit into the future of the franchise, including perhaps Fast 10.

In an interview with Deadline, Justin Lin was asked about the future of Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw in the Fast & Furious universe. Although they will not appear in the steadily-approaching F9, Lin sure makes it sound like we will see them again. Here’s the promising news in his exact words:

It sounds like there is a good chance we could see these two actors reprise characters in future franchise films, like Fast 10 (or Fast 10.5?) in addition to a Hobbs and Shaw sequel. The pair are pretty popular for being somewhat of later additions to the franchise, so their appearances would likely be very welcome to fans.

After over 20 years of beautiful cars and action stars behind their wheels, Fast 10 is set to be the conclusion of the main Fast Saga. That doesn’t mean the universe will be ending completely though! There are still future spinoff films to look forward to, and the Fast and Furious Spy Racers animated series is still going strong on Netflix.

Seeing as F9 hasn’t even hit theaters yet, we may be getting ahead of ourselves looking so far in the future of the Fast & Furious franchise. Even so, it’s a pretty bright light to look forward to when you consider Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham’s returns very possible. Until then, we’ll just have to settle for the Johnson and Statham-less F9, which is finally set to release to theaters June 25 after a string of delays.

The Fast & Furious franchise has come a long way. We've seen Vin Diesel's Dominic Torreto and crew go from small-scale street racer to international powerhouses throughout the franchise’s run, upping the stakes and scale with every new movie. It hasn’t been without difficulty, though, as the death of Paul Walker, who played an integral part since the beginning, was difficult for all involved. Now, F9 director and architect Justin Lin has opened up about how challenging it's been to write around Walker’s character.

After Paul Walker’s tragic passing, his character, Brian O’Conner, received a send-off, retiring him from the escalating escapades of the family he had been so important to. Brian is still alive in the movies, and this situation has proven to be a logistical hurdle for the filmmakers. Director Justin Lin recently spoke to EW about the difficulty in maneuvering around Paul Walker's character:

Justin Lin describes how he wants to be respectful of Paul Walker’s memory while acknowledging his character’s legacy and continued presence in the movies. It is commendable that so much thought and care have gone into handling Walker’s character, starting with the last ride scene in Fast and Furious 7, which enlisted Paul Walker’s brother to help bring his character’s beautiful send-off to life.

The Fast & Furious franchise is wrapping up its last chapter, starting with Fast 9, bringing its main series to an end with Fast 11. Justin Lin and the crew have been able to push the limits of what it’s capable of with every new entry, even making the idea a potential Jurrasic Park crossover sound realistic. In addition, the series continues to add to its cast with stars like John Cena, who Vin Diesel says Paul Walker told him to cast.

Paul Walker will always be a major part of the franchise, and his portrayal of Brian O’conner was a major reason for the success of the franchise, allowing it to continue to grow after his passing. Honoring the memory of Walker while pushing the story forward is a tall task but has been done with care and consideration. F9 is one of the most anticipated movies of 2021, and Justin Lin and company are poised to deliver another boundary-pushing installment.

F9 roars into theaters on June 25, 2021.

Another Super Bowl has come and gone, but this year’s big game looked a lot different from the gridiron showdowns of past years. I’m not talking about the game itself but the TV spots for movies that typically accompany the event. While they were scarce, we did get a new spot from F9, which showcased Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his “family,” as they do battle with Dom’s half brother, Jakob. Of course, the spot also included an insane moment that saw a car slide through a building and then into a truck. Did I mention the car was on its side, too? It was a crazy moment to say the least and, now, we know how the Fast & Furious filmmakers pulled it off.

After the release of the F9 Super Bowl spot, the film’s director, Justin Lin, decided to give fans a peek behind the curtain to show how they pulled off that crazy stunt. Lin took to Twitter to show off some behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot and, as you would imagine, it required quite a bit of preparation. Check it out for yourself down below:

You read that right. Justin Lin says it took eight months to prepare for that four-second sequence. Not only that, but the filmmakers also destroyed three cars in the process. Needless to say, Lin and his collaborators are dedicated to their craft and know just how to keep audiences thrilled.

The Fast & Furious franchise has delivered plenty of extreme stunts over the years, with the spectacle seemingly getting more intense as time goes on. Many likely remember the skydiving cars sequence from Furious 7, and let’s not forget the submarine scene from The Fate of the Furious. Still, the producers do try to keep safety in mind and have shut down stunts for being too dangerous.

While many enjoy the spectacle of the Fast & Furious franchise, many have also come to love the characters, and it seems there will be some interesting developments on that front. As mentioned, the film will introduce Dom’s brother, Jakob, who seems set to give his brother and his allies plenty of problems, especially since he’s teaming up with slick villain Cypher.

And of course, fans can also look forward to the long hoped-for return of Han Lue, who has somehow returned from the dead. His resurrection seemed like a long shot, but Vin Diesel and the producers seem to have understood how important it was to get “Justice for Han.”

There’s plenty to be excited about when it comes to F9 and, after that insane Super Bowl trailer, fans are likely even more pumped to see it. Let’s just hope we’ll be able to see it on the big screen sooner rather than later.

F9 is currently scheduled to hit theaters on May 28, 2021.

If things had according to plan this year, the ninth Fast & Furious movie, officially known as F9, would have hit theaters back in May, meaning you’d be able to watch it on home media now. Unfortunately, the health crisis resulted in F9 being delayed to next year. The silver lining to that drastic release date shift is it afforded director Justin Lin extra time to put F9 together, and now the filmmaker has revealed that work on the movie is almost complete.

F9 finished filming long ago, but as anyone remotely familiar with the moviemaking process knows, there’s a lot of work that goes into the post-production process, especially for actin-packed blockbusters. But it looks like that portion of F9 is nearly done, as Justin Lin announced that the movie’s audio mix is locked in with the following Twitter post:

While it’s possible there’s still a little extra work to be done before F9 is 100% finished, such as ironing out the VFX, the next installment in the Fast & Furious franchise is almost at the finish line, and with plenty of time to spare. F9 isn’t scheduled to arrive until next May, so Lin and his team could have easily spread out the work and finished F9 just a month or two before delivering it to the public. Instead, it sounds like F9 will be ready to go before 2020 is over.

While the Fast & Furious franchise entertained fans last year with the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff, by the time F9 hits the big screen, it’ll have been four years since the last installment in the main film series, The Fate of the Furious, came out. Originally F9 was delayed to April 2, 2021, but after the next James Bond movie, No Time to Die, moved into that same slot, Universal Pictures shifted the car-centric blockbuster to late May.

F9 sees Dominic Toretto and our other intrepid protagonists facing off against John Cena’s Jakob Toretto, Dom and Mia’s estranger brother who’s joined forces with Charlize Theron’s Cipher, the main antagonist from The Fate of the Furious. F9 is also bringing Sung Kang’s Han Lue back into play after years of the character having thought to be killed, and somehow the action will eventually make its way into outer space. This is Justin Lin’s fifth time directing a Fast & Furious movie, having joined the franchise with 2006’s Tokyo Drift and helming the three movies that followed.

We’re about due for another F9 trailer to be released, but until that happens, feel free to re-watch the first trailer below.

Originally F9 was being positioned at the penultimate entry of the main Fast & Furious film series. However, it was announced last month that two more sequels are on the way rather than just one, so we’re getting a little extra time with Dom and the gang. Plus, there’s both a Hobbs & Shaw sequel and a female-focused spinoff in development, so even though the main narrative is beginning to wind down, this franchise isn’t disappearing anytime soon.

F9 races into theaters on May 28, 2021. If you’re curious about what other movies are supposed to come out next year, scan through our 2021 release schedule.

Community will long be remembered as one of the best sitcoms of the modern era, and that comes as an extension of having some incredible talent both in front of and behind the camera. From the genius mind of Dan Harmon serving as showrunner, to the incredible talents of Donald Glover on screen, every aspect of the show had brilliant people contributing to the overall greatness. All you have to do is watch the NBC series to understand this, but it’s also very much reflected in all of the success that key contributors have had in the years since being a part of it.

Looking back on the six seasons of the series, there are specifically nine people who really stand out when it comes to reflecting on how far they’ve come since adding their particular genius to the excellence that is Community, and so we’ve put together this feature highlighting their journeys:

Dan Harmon

In creating Community, Dan Harmon earned a legion of lifelong fans. The show may not have ever been a ratings giant, but the people who tuned into its frequency deeply connected with what the showrunner was doing, and it’s become a cult favorite as a result. Ultimately, despite some of the behind-the-scenes controversies, the NBC series provided Harmon with a passionate fanbase – and that fanbase has only gotten bigger thanks to the work he’s been doing since, namely the Adult Swim hit Rick & Morty.

The end of Community actually overlapped with the launch of Rick & Morty, as the first season of the latter aired concurrently with the second-to-last season of the former, but the animated series has successfully captured the attention of a far bigger audience, and now it’s easily one of the most popular shows currently airing. One can only hope that their appreciation of the cartoon is getting people to discover Community, especially since its now so easily accessible streaming on Netflix.

Alison Brie

When Alison Brie began her run as bright overachiever Annie Edison on Community, a certain cross-section of the TV watching audience was already familiar with her work. By 2009, she had been featured in two seasons of the AMC series Mad Men, playing the young housewife of Vincent Kartheiser's Pete Campbell. That being said, the sitcom allowed audiences to see Brie’s very real range, giving her the opportunity to play a very different character than Trudy Campbell, and we’ve seen a whole lot more of it in the years since both shows ended.

Nowadays, Alison Brie is probably best known for her central role as Ruth Wilder on the Netflix series GLOW, which is scheduled to release its fourth season later this year, but she has also been killing it on the voice actor front. In addition to consistently delivering a hilarious and emotional performance as Diane Nguyen on the brilliant series Bojack Horsemen, she has also played Unikitty in both of the LEGO Movies.

Donald Glover

For those who have been following his career for a while, the meteoric rise of Donald Glover has been extremely fun to watch. He was an internet star at first, creating hilarious content as part of the group Derrick Comedy (including the excellent feature Mystery Team), and from there he became a writer for 30 Rock – but it was really his work on Community that fully exposed his comedic brilliance and served as a key springboard to all of the amazing work he has done since.

Troy was unquestionably one of the best parts of Community, not only being half of the genius Troy & Abed duo, but also independently providing hilarity and surprising pathos. Dan Harmon has admitted that the best days of the NBC show ended when Donald Glover chose to leave, but you can’t exactly hate on him just because of his remarkable contributions to pop culture in the years since. His FX series Atlanta has won him two Emmys and a Golden Globe, and he has become a dominant force in music as well, winning five Grammys in the last two years. And did we mention he played young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and adult Simba in The Lion King remake? Few stars shine as brightly as he does, and he’s only 36 years old.

Jim Rash

There were a hell of a lot of strange individuals who roamed the halls of Greendale Community College, but few were as ridiculous as Jim Rash’s Dean Pelton. The sexually confused administrator with a penchant for wearing crazy costumes regularly stood out as one of the most eccentric characters in Community, and consistently provided some of the most hilarious moments on the show. He was also a notable creative force behind the scenes, both as a writer and as a director – and that makes sense when you take note of his accomplishments beyond the NBC sitcom.

Community was in the midst of airing the second half of its third season when Jim Rash’s name was read by Angelina Jolie on the stage of the 84th Academy Awards, as he and co-writers Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for their work on The Descendants. Since then, Rash has not only become a prominent voice actor, with regular roles on shows like Star Wars Resistance, Mike Tyson Mysteries, and Harley Quinn, but he's also teamed with Nat Faxon and started directing features – the most recent being Downhill with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Joe and Anthony Russo

When Joe and Anthony Russo were first hired to direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a lot of people were totally clueless as to who they were – but that group doesn’t include Community fans. That particular collection recognized the brothers as a dominant force behind the making of their favorite comedy series, collectively producing 48 episodes and directing more than 30 (including the pilot). Those who watched the NBC show recognized the impressive talent that Marvel Studios had brought into their fold by hiring the sibling filmmakers, and the Russos are considered two of the most famous blockbuster directors in the world.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved to be only the start of Joe and Anthony Russo’s career in the world of tentpole movies, as that hit was followed by Captain America: Civil War, and then the two-fer Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (the latter now considered the biggest blockbuster of all time). It’s been great to watch as a Community fan, particularly because the Russos have consistently nodded towards their history with the show in their Marvel movies, specifically by including cameos by Jim Rash, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Ken Jeong.

Brie Larson

Community fans don’t love talking about Season 4 (alternatively referred to as the “Gas Leak Year”), but one part of that era of the show that even Dan Harmon loyalists can agree on is that it featured one of the series’ best character debuts. Having earned some recognition for roles in movies like 21 Jump Street, The Spectacular Now, and Short Term 12, Brie Larson was a welcomed addition to the Community family, playing a love interest of Abed’s who is introduced independently running a coat check at a school dance. The role blossomed into more excellence in Season 5, with Larson returning for two more episodes – but since then the actor’s profile has absolutely exploded.

It was shortly after being on Community that Brie Larson became an Academy Award winner for her stunning work in the drama Room, and now that acclaim has been paired with massive box office success as well. Like the Russo brothers, Larson also went on to become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in 2019 her debut superhero solo film Captain Marvel became a billion dollar hit. She is now considered one of the biggest stars in the industry, and it’s even more fun to watch her performances on Community now knowing that.

Justin Lin

Looking back on the history of Community, it was arguably the paintball epic “Modern Warfare” that really first helped the show not only capture attention, but start to define what it was going to be. Part of what made that episode so spectacular was because of the action-driven stylistic sensibilities that made it pop, and for that fans could thank director Justin Lin – who had a bit of experience under his belt having made both The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious. It was ultimately one of three episodes that Lin helmed for the show, all during the first season, as one year later the guy saw his career blow up with the blockbuster release of Fast Five.

Thanks to a bit of star power infusion courtesy of Dwayne Johnson, the fifth chapter of the Fast & Furious franchise made almost double what its predecessor did worldwide at the box office, and Justin Lin found himself established as a major Hollywood director. He went on to then direct Fast & Furious 6, another massive hit, and for his last big screen effort ventured into outer space for Star Trek Beyond. He’s since rejoined the Fast & Furious family, directing both the upcoming titles F9 and Fast & Furious 10, but Community fans will long recognize him for his contribution to the brilliant comedy series.

John Oliver

Admittedly John Oliver had made a name for himself prior to playing Professor Ian Duncan on Community. After all, he had spent years prior serving as a correspondent on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, receiving great praise for his contributions. His time on Dan Harmon’s show stands out, however, because it is one of the few examples of his live-action acting that exists – and it’s also the biggest production he was a part of prior to doing the work that he is best known for today.

John Oliver had to conclude his time as part of Community in 2014 (a.k.a. after Season 5) because that was when he started hosting Last Week Tonight With John Oliver – the show that he continues to host today. Oliver has earned great acclaim for the series, which is now airing its seventh season and has won a grand total of 16 Emmy awards. All the same, we’ll always remember him as the drunk Greendale professor who rapped about his penis and drinking tea at a school dance.

Who would you say has had the most success in the years since their contributions to Community? Hit the comments section with your thoughts!

While the Fast & Furious franchise has remained one of the more popular film franchises of the day, the latter third of the soon to be nine movie series has caused a significant divide among fans that can be summed up in three words "justice for Han." A lot of fans have had a serious problem with the way the series mistreated the fan favorite character in that it transformed his killer, Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw, from villain to hero, without so much as an apology for killing off the character. It appears that one of those who didn't like the direction the franchise was going, was F9 director Justin Lin.

Justin Lin has directed most of the films in the Fast & Furious franchise. He introduced the character of Han in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and he introduced Deckard Shaw in the mid-credits sequence of Fast & Furious 6. However, Lin stepped away for Furious 7 and its followup, The Fate of the Furious, so he wasn't part of the former film's battle with Deckard Shaw, or the latter film's addition of him as a, however unwilling, member of the team. Justin Lin recently told Total Film (via GamesRadar) that part of the reason he came back was to address this oversight. According to Lin...

It's true that, while there's a perpetual feeling from Deckard Shaw throughout The Fate of the Furious, that he doesn't want to be there, in the end, it's the Shaw brothers that keep Dom's son safe, and as the movie ends, everybody is celebrating at a barbecue, and Shaw seems to be on good terms with the "family.".

The problem that so many fans have is that Han's fate is never so much as hinted at. Seeing a villain get redeemed and become one of the good guts is far from an unusual thing in movies, but there's a feeling that Fast & Furious just sort of skipped the redeeming bit. Shaw never has to address what he did, and nobody else seems to have a problem with the fact that he killed their friend.

Of course, we know now from the F9 trailer that, somehow, Han is actually still alive. This will address the "justice" issue in one way, but one certainly wonders how F9 might address the larger Deckard Shaw question.

Shaw as a character has apparently moved out of the main franchise with Dwayne Johnson's Hobbs, who were in last year's spinoff movie, while neither will appear in this one. The question we all have now is, with Shaw no longer part of the main franchise, will he be treated as a villain once again, or will the truth of Han being alive be explained as part of a plot point that will give Shaw the real redemption he never actually got?

After years of fans asking for "Justice For Han" it appears that with F9, that justice will finally come. The trailer for the newest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise revealed that Han, the character played by Sung Kang, who died at the hands of Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw, is, in fact, very much alive. Apparently we have director Justin Lin to thank for that.

With F9 Justin Lin will have directed five of the nine films in the main franchise, making him as much a part of the franchise as many of the characters. He directed both Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift, the film which introduced Han, and Fast & Furious 6, the movie which killed him off. In a recent interview with MTV, Lin admitted that he feels a strong connection to both the actor and the character, and he felt that if he was going to return to the franchise, he needed to bring Han with him. According to Lin...

Han honestly has one of the more interesting stories in the Fast & Furious franchise and is at the heart of not one but two, of the best twists in the series. Introduced as a former member of Dominic Toretto's crew, that we had not previously met, in Tokyo Drift, Han dies in a tragic accident. Then with Fast & Furious, the confusingly named fourth film in the series, we see Han working alongside Dom and company. The franchise has jumped back in time to show Han as a member of the team, and we then spend three movies waiting for the shoe to drop and find out when Han's death will happen.

It finally hits during a mid-credits scene in Fast & Furious 6, but it's revealed that the accident from Tokyo Drift was no accident, rather an intentional hit on a member of Dom's crew by a guy with a vendetta, who then becomes the main antagonist of Furious 7.

However, the "Justice For Han" movement only really picked up steam in the lead up to the last movie, The Fate of the Furious. It was there that Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw, the man who killed Han, actually joins the team. Fans felt this was a betrayal, as the guy hadn't so much as apologized for killing somebody who was supposed to be "family."

But it seems that the cries of the fans were heard by Justin Lin, and so he came back to the franchise, at least in part, to specifically deal with this issue. We have no idea how or why Han is back, but we'll find out when F9 hits theaters later this year.

The first trailer for Fast & Furious 9, i.e. F9, dropped earlier today, and while the preview hooked people in by revealing that John Cena is playing Dom Tortetto’s brother, Jakob, the biggest surprise was saved for the very end with a surprise appearance from Sung Kang’s Han Lue. Thought to have been killed by Deckard Shaw, Han is very much alive and will be reuniting with his car-loving family in the next Fast & Furious installment.

Speaking about why Han is back for F9, director Justin Lin mentioned how he shares a “personal connection” with the character, and that compared to when he first worked on the Fast & Furious franchise, the sense of community was different than it is now. Feeling that he and his team have to earn “every kind of connection with the audience,” Lin continued:

F9 marks Justin Lin’s fifth time directing a Fast & Furious movie, having previously helmed entries three through six, all of which included Han Lue. Although Han was killed in a car crash in Tokyo Drift, the franchise’s third movie, Fast & Furious, Fast Five and the majority of Fast & Furious 6 all took place beforehand. Han’s death was revisited during the ending of the latter and once more during Furious 7, with Dom and the rest of the crew believing that Deckard Shaw had successfully murdered him.

However, as Justin Lin informed Entertainment Weekly, Han’s death didn’t sit right with him, so upon signing onto Fast & Furious 9, he decided to bring Han back into the fold. As for how Han factors into F9, Lin responded:

Once Deckard Shaw started being treated like a member of the Fast “family” at the end of The Fate of the Furious, and Jason Statham’s character subsequently teamed up with Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs in Hobbs & Shaw, many fans felt this was a betrayal to Han. This prompted responses from certain individuals working on the franchise that “Justice for Han” was coming. Now we know how: by having him back among the living.

Of course, now the big mystery is how Han is still alive. Did he fake his death? Or have things just gotten so crazy within the Fast & Furious world that he was somehow resurrected? Will we even get an explanation? Time will tell, but the reaction online to the character’s return has been overwhelmingly positive, to the point that “HAN IS ALIVE” is trending on Twitter.

Along with Han Lue, Fast & Furious 9 features the return of Jordan Brewster’s Mia Toretto, Charlize Theron’s Cipher, Helen Mirren’s Magdalene Shaw, Lucas Black’s Sean Boswell and Jason Tobin’s Earl (who was last seen in Tokyo Drift). Along with John Cena’s Jakob, the movie will feature new characters played by Michael Rooker, Cardi B, Finn Cole, Anna Sawai, Vinnie Bennett, Oduna and Francis Ngannou.

F9 races into theaters on May 22. Find out what else is hitting the silver screen this year in our 2020 release schedule.

Although we recently revisited the Fast & Furious universe through the spinoff Hobbs & Shaw, it’s been two years since the last main installment, The Fate of the Furious, screened to the masses. But for those of you who’ve been eager to reunite with Dominic Toretto and his crew, Fast & Furious 9 has just wrapped filming, and here’s how director Justin Lin celebrated the milestone.

Nothing summarizes the movie-making process more than showing one of the cameras that helped capture the story that will eventually be shown on the big screen. Justin Lin also thanked the Fast & Furious 9 crew for all their hard work across the many locations where production took place, and went so far as to call this the “most ambitious film” of the Fast & Furious series. That’s high praise!

Fast & Furious 9 began filming in late June, meaning that principal photography lasted for almost five full months. Now that cameras are finished rolling, per Justin Lin’s Twitter post, that means it’s time for Justin Lin and the postproduction team to edit the footage together into the final product that audiences will watch in a half year’s time.

Speaking of which, although there have been plenty of behind-the-scenes looks at Fast & Furious 9 over the last several months, we haven’t been treated to any official pictures or footage yet. Now that filming is completed, perhaps that means a trailer could be on the way soon. Remember, The Fate of the Furious aired its first trailer in December 2016, so Universal could follow suit next month with the first Fast & Furious 9 preview.

One would imagine that trailer will provide the first Fast & Furious 9 story details, as information concerning the plot has been kept close to the proverbial chest. The Fate of the Furious ended with Dominic Toretto being reunited with his son and celebrating with his teammates and allies over their latest win. While we’ve since seen what Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw have been up to after those events, we’re still in the dark about what Dom and his crew have gotten themselves into for Fast & Furious 9.

What we do know is who will comprise the core cast. Along with mainstays like Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson and Nathalie Emmanuel, Fast & Furious 9 will also see the return of Jordana Brewster’s Mia Toretto, Charlize Theron’s Cipher and Helen Mirren’s Magdalene Shaw. The movie’s newcomers include characters played by Michael Rooker, John Cena, Finn Cole, Anna Sawai, Vinnie Bennett, Ozuna and Cardi B.

This marks Justin Lin’s fourth outing in the Fast & Furious franchise, having previously directed Fast & Furious, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6. Lin is also set to helm Fast & Furious 10, which is still set to be the final installment of the main film series. Chris Morgan and Daniel Casey wrote the Fast & Furious 9 script.

Fast & Furious 9 races into theaters on May 22, 2020, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. In the meantime, you can learn what else is coming out next year in our 2020 release schedule.

Is justice for Han Lue (Sung Kang) finally coming in Fast & Furious 9? Fans have been pushing for justice ever since it was revealed that Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw was the one responsible for the fiery car crash that killed Han. Now Shaw is treated like part of the Fast "family," getting team-up time with Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in The Fate of the Furious and then even his own spinoff in Hobbs & Shaw.

Han fans felt the Fast "family" was betraying him. But now that Fast 9 is winding down filming, and director Justin Lin was spotted wearing a #JusticeForHan shirt, maybe that's a hint for what's ahead? You can see the shirt in Vin Diesel's latest Fast & Furious 9 video, which was also a happy birthday post for Justin Lin:

I'm excited to see how Fast & Furious 9 will blow fans' minds, per Vin Diesel. And with the director's shirt slogan, I have to wonder if fans will finally get what they've been waiting for. Justin Lin is returning to the Fast franchise for #9, with his previous film being Fast & Furious 6 -- the movie that revealed, in the end, that Deckard Shaw was the one to kill Han. Could it be that Lin is back to complete the Han story he walked away from?

Since then, fans have only gotten lip service on Justice for Han. There was a throwaway line in Hobbs & Shaw where Shaw said, "There’s things I’ve done that I have to make amends for." Screenwriter Chris Morgan told the L.A. Times, "That is specifically referring to Han." But it wasn't really enough for many fans. Morgan seemed to hint, in that interview, that more was on the way. He shared a message for Han's fans:

Chris Morgan even addressed -- albeit with a laugh -- the idea of both Han and Gisele (Gal Gadot) returning for Fast 9:

Give us some flashbacks! One thing I'm worried about is what the Fast franchise might tell us about Han to justify what Shaw did -- although from Shaw's perspective, he was just getting justice for his own family. Not too long ago, Fast screenwriter Chris Morgan had this response on the #JusticeForHan movement:

Chris Morgan has been working with director Justin Lin in the Fast franchise since they teamed up for 2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the movie that killed off Han. They both returned for 2009's Fast & Furious, 2011's Fast Five, and 2013's Fast & Furious 6, which revealed that Deckard Shaw was the one to kill Han.

Justin Lin then stepped away from the franchise, but Chris Morgan stayed as screenwriter for James Wan's Furious 7 and F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious. Now Justin Lin is back for Fast & Furious 9. His T-shirt is giving fans hope, so let's hope it's not misplaced.

The Fast franchise is a family -- and that family now includes John Cena, after he passed the respect test. Fast 9 is bringing back Jordana Brewster's Mia Toretto in a cool way. Brewster skipped the previous movie, and since Paul Walker's brother Cody was seen in the Fast 9 set, there's been speculation that the character of Brian might reappear in some fashion, since he is still alive and raising kids with Mia in the Fast universe.

Fast & Furious 9 is scheduled for release on May 22, 2020, and it will be followed by Fast & Furious 10. Dwayne Johnson is now expected to return to the franchise, it's just not clear yet whether it will be for a Fast 9 cameo or later for Fast 10.

One aspect that has particularly allowed the Fast And The Furious to grow in popularity over the years is the way in which its regularly added to its central ensemble. Going back to Fast Five, which was the movie that brought Dwayne Johnson into the fold, there has been a pattern of not only casting notable names, but keeping them around for more than just one story. This is a list that includes Johnson as well as Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, and Luke Evans, and now Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren can be added to that list as well.

Mirren is already set to make her second appearance in the franchise later this summer with a small part in David Leitch's Hobbs and Shaw, but Vin Diesel is now confirming via his personal Instagram account that that both she and Charlize Theron will have roles to play in Justin Lin's developing Fast & Furious 9. There is no word yet about their specific involvement - including the sizes of their individual roles, or how they fit into the plot - but they join a growing ensemble that is also set to include Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, and newcomer John Cena.

Both actresses made their debuts in the series in the most recent chapter - F. Gary Gray's The Fate Of The Furious - but at this point they exist at very different points on the hero/villain spectrum. Helen Mirren plays Magdalene Shaw, who is not only the mother to both Owen (Luke Evans) and Deckard (Jason Statham), but a powerful criminal in her own right. You'd think that this would put her more on the antagonist side of things, but her biggest contribution to the larger story so far is helping Vin Diesel's Dom when he came to her requesting help protecting his son.

On the other hand, Charlize Theron's Cipher is a maniac and definitely one of the bad guys. She was the central villain in The Fate Of The Furious, which was a chapter that not only saw her try and start a nuclear war, but also kidnap and kill people that Dom loves. It's worth mentioning that a heroic turn may not be totally outside the realm of possibility, as there are many #JusticeForHan supporters who wonder why the Family decided to embrace Deckard Shaw after Furious 7, but it's far more likely that Cipher will simply be causing more chaos and havoc in Fast & Furious 9.

The upcoming sequel in the action franchise is now about three weeks into production, and they're likely trying to move quickly as Universal has plans to have the finished feature in theaters worldwide during Memorial Day weekend next year. Updates keep coming from the set on a regular basis, so be on the look out for more news about Fast & Furious 9.

For those of you who simply can't wait 10 months for more of this cinematic universe, you'll be happy to know that a perfect scratch for your itch is now just a few weeks away. Hobbs and Shaw, which is the first spin-off created for the Fast & Furious franchise, is set to arrive in theaters everywhere on August 2nd, and we'll have tons of coverage coming your way here on CinemaBlend.

Six seasons and a movie. Originally a proclamation of how long the NBC series The Cape would last (it didn't), Community itself latched onto those words following its second season, and thanks to Yahoo! rescuing the TV series it was cancelled by NBC, it fulfilled the six seasons portion of the promise. The movie, however, has yet to surface, but Community creator Dan Harmon hasn't given up hope on bringing the Greendale gang into a theatrical setting. In fact, he's been talking with Fast & Furious 6 director Justin Lin about bringing the Community movie to life. According to Harmon:

While Justin Lin is best well known for directing four of the Fast & Furious entries (which will become five if he signs on for Fast & Furious 9) and Star Trek Beyond, he also directed three episodes in Community Season 1, including "Modern Warfare," the first of the show's paintball-themed episodes. As Dan Harmon told The Wrap, Lin has "always been jazzed about the idea of doing a Community movie," so it sounds like he and Harmon are actively working to finally get this project off the ground. Given that Lin is primarily focusing on blockbuster movies nowadays, it might be difficult to fit a Community movie onto his already-packed plate, but at least he sounds enthusiastic about returning to Greendale Community College.

However, Justin Lin isn't the only big-time director who Dan Harmon has talked with about making the Community movie. While many of you know Joe and Anthony Russo best as the directors of the latter two Captain America movies and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, before joining the MCU, they helmed numerous Community episodes, albeit separately rather than as a duo. Harmon sees the Russos and Lin as the kind of people who have the clout to finally make the Community movie happen. However, given how busy the Russos are with their Marvel work and other projects, presumably Lin stands a better chance of actually directing the movie.

Back in September, Joel McHale, who played Jeff Winger, said he's hopeful the Community movie will eventually happen, although he's unsure if there will still be an "appetite" for it after a decade. Aside from getting a director and proper financing, the other major obstacle facing the Community movie is getting the ensemble cast back together. From Gillian Jacobs and Allison Brie starring in their own TV series to the uncertainty of Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover returning to the Community world after they departed the series, it won't be an easy task getting all those familiar faces back in front of the camera. But if someone like Justin Lin were leading the charge alongside Dan Harmon, maybe that would help in finally moving this project from a concept to a reality.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news on what's happening with the Community movie, and look through our 2018 premiere guide to see what hits theaters next year.