‘Fast and Furious’ Franchise to End With 11th Film, Justin Lin Directing

This one goes all the way to 11.

The central “Fast and Furious” franchise will come to a conclusion after the 10th and 11th films, Variety has confirmed. Justin Lin, who directed the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth “Fast and Furious” films, will return to direct the final two installments and the franchise to the finish line after over two decades in theaters.

This does not, however, necessarily mean that the “Fast and Furious” cinematic universe is coming to an end. While the core storyline following Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his family of fellow car-enthusiasts-turned-thieves-turned-physics-defying-superheroes will conclude after Lin directs the 11th installment, spin-off movies based on “Fast and Furious” characters are currently in development at Universal.

The first of those endeavors, the creatively titled “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, opened in 2019 and grossed over $759 million worldwide. Just $174 million of that total came from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, underlining just how crucial international grosses have become for this franchise especially. The highest grossing film in the franchise, 2015’s “Furious 7,” made $1.16 billion from foreign grosses alone, and made more in China ($390.9 million) than it did from domestic grosses ($353 million).

The latest film in the main “Fast & Furious” series, the tersely titled “F9,” was originally supposed to debut earlier this year, but Universal pushed the project to Memorial Day 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That film costars franchise regulars Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, and Tyrese Gibson, along with several actors who’ve played memorable roles in past “Fast & Furious” films, including Jordana Brewster, Lucas Black, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, and especially Sung Kang as Han, who starred in Lin’s first franchise outing as a director, 2006’s “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.” John Cena, meanwhile, makes his franchise debut as Jakob, the newest villain, and Dom’s younger brother; music stars Cardi B and Ozuna will also appear in the film.

More to come.