Officially, the Fast & Furious franchise includes nine feature films, with the tenth on the way, and also a spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw (2019), which didn't please Vin Diesel at all. However, that's Fast X official movie of the story: true fans know that the Gospel In accordance with Toretto has spread through animated series ?Fast & Furious: Spies at Full Throttle (2017-2021)?, video games, an attraction in all the Universal theme parks and several short films simply for the, very insiders.
The first of these gets the incredible title of The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and is, well, a straightforward prelude to the next film, devoted to how Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) manages to evade the authorities. from LA until landing in Miami. The producers' idea was to establish some sort of connective tissue between your first two installments and fill a narrative gap that, in the end, consolidated Brian as the absolute protagonist of the story, since Diesel didn't want to return. Only promotional material designed for the internet ?hence its aesthetic, almost worthy of a Sisq� video clip?, although some UNITED STATES cinemas showed it before 2 Fast 2 Furious to give the public a far more complete experience.
While you won't find anyone defending The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 2 Fast 2 Furious as an essential piece of mythology, things are very different in terms of the second short. Los Bandoleros (2009), written and directed by Vin Diesel himself, introduces Tego Calder�n and Don Omar into the saga, two musicians turned actors who be essential pieces in a few subsequent installments, especially Fast 5 (2011). Not only that, but it addittionally details what happened to the characters of Dom and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) after the original film, along with recovering Sung Kang's Han, whose friendship with the paterfamilias have been established by the end of Fast & Furious: Tokyo Race (2006). More than an interlude between movies, Los Bandoleros is a refoundation of the franchise, a new beginning where Diesel allowed himself to look at a far more poetic and relaxed tone, commensurate with the natural settings of the Dominican Republic (where he himself, a reggaeton enthusiast, insisted which should be set). It is not strictly necessary that you see it in the next fast and furious marathon, nonetheless it responds to the authorial vision of the main creative engine of it. Which makes it an interesting curiosity.
However, the story does not end there. Only the most dedicated to the cause know this, but there exists a secret, semi-official film that, thanks to director Justin Lin's capability to slip under Universal's radar, can be considered the main experience. From a certain perspective, sure, but take our word for this: the crime dramedy Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) traces the origins of the type Han Lue, also played by Kang (can you imagine any other actor for the reason that role?). He and Lin have confirmed on multiple occasions that it is indeed the same character, so there is absolutely no reason, other than the obvious and boring copyright issue, to exclude her from canon. Actually, their presence transforms this cinematic universe right into a more expansive and richly nuanced place: it's funny to think that while Dom and Brian were meeting in downtown L.A., the characters in Better Luck Tomorrow were living their very own ordeal a few feet away. kilometers of distance.
The story of how this indie film found its way into F&F is fascinating enough to miss. When screenwriter Chris Morgan heard that Universal was available to ideas for a third film in the series, he showed up at his offices with a pitch about how Dominc Toretto decides to travel to Japan to investigate the murder of a vintage friend. Since Diesel had not been yet interested in returning to what would end up being his family ? he only wished to make a brief final cameo after the studio gave him the rights to The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) ? Morgan contacted Justin Lin to imagine a fresh protagonist. The director thought it would be a great opportunity to cast an Asian-American actor as the franchise's new hero, but the producers flatly refused, arguing that someone like Lucas Black could have more potential at the box office. Lin reluctantly agreed, asking them to at the very least let him revise the script to create it less "offensive and outdated" (those were his words).