The FAST & FURIOUS series has turned into one of the highest-grossing franchises of all-time, but its beginnings were much more humble than the billion dollar juggernaut it would later become. Released in 2001, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS was a story about street-racing with a dash of heist thrown in for good measure. It introduced us to characters who would become the focus of the series' future, such as Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), but at the time, it was impossible to guess that the franchise would transform into something where a car could successfully make a leap between not one, but two, skyscrapers.
Rob Cohen helmed the first film in the franchise, and with the main saga set to wrap up with the tenth installment, Cohen told ScreenCrush that he "always wished Universal would come back to me to direct the last one," joking that it may only end when "Comcast’s Board of Directors [lets] them end the goose that laid the golden egg." In regards to the final two installments, Vin Diesel has previously teased that Justin Lin, who helmed THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOYKO DRIFT through FAST & FURIOUS 6, would be back to direct the final sequels, but hey, anything is possible. Rob Cohen went on to comment on how the franchise has evolved since he set it loose on the world all those years ago.
The franchise went from a Los Angeles story built around a family of multicultural brothers and sisters to what I’ll call “pure spectacle.” The beauty is that the audience has ridden along with it for these 18 years. I’m very proud that the characters I created in 2001 are still in the lexicon. There‘s still a Dominic Toretto appearing every two years, or a Mia Toretto, or a Letty. It had to evolve, and it evolved in a way that was ultra-worldwide commercial. And the heartbeat of it is: We live in a world with no gravity, cars can do anything. They can burst out of the nose of airplanes. People can jump across freeways. They can take down helicopters. It’s like, “Okay, anything for the spectacle.” They spend $350 million on these movies, so they’ve got the money to pull this stuff off. And the audience is eating it up. The last one still did $1.25 billion. For my kids’ college fund, I’m very happy that it’s had this longevity. I started out to do a different thing, but the thing that I did implanted this world and these characters deeply in that audience. And they’re still coming for a hit of it. And most of the time when you go on the internet and [read] “Which was the best Fast & Furious?” It’s almost always mine.
Although the main saga is set to wrap up with the tenth film (I'll believe it when I see it), the FAST & FURIOUS franchise will soon expand with various spin-offs, the first of which will be HOBBES AND SHAW. The spin-off will be centered around Dwayne Johnson's Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw and is slated for a July 26, 2019 release.
What do you folks think? Should Rob Cohen return to bring the FAST & FURIOUS franchise to a close?
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