Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster gathered in Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 17, for a 25th anniversary screening of The Fast and the Furious, the 2001 film that launched the franchise. The event, hosted by Universal Pictures, followed a midnight screening at Cannes earlier this year and coincided with the studio's decision to re-release the original film in theaters.
Reflecting on the Cannes screening, Rodriguez told The Hollywood Reporter she was "in awe at all the love that we got," adding it felt especially meaningful "with the studio heads present." She explained that past disagreements with the studio now felt justified: "Sometimes you fight over things [with the studio] that seem silly, like standing your ground on ethics or morals. From a studio perspective or from a broad macro perspective, it's like 'Oh these guys are just criminals, what do we care if they have morals?' We fight for you to understand that it's not always back and white, there's always a grey area, and life is like that. All those fights kind of felt worth it."
The anniversary also brought fresh details on what's ahead. After 10 films over 25 years, an 11th — and allegedly final — installment titled Fast Forever is set for release in March 2028. Diesel, who stars in and produces the film, has already praised the script online, calling it "the best script I have read in decades. I am still crying."
Neither Rodriguez nor Brewster has read the script yet, but both shared hopes for its direction. Rodriguez said, "if I have any wish for the last one, it's that they bring it back to the community because that community has kept us alive for 25 years; it's a global community, and it has to do with cars, not this 007, bring your cars to space shit. Let's get back to what it all started as — an article in the paper about the race scene, let's go back there." Brewster, who has spoken with Diesel about the project, said she hopes "we kind of go back to L.A., that would be really cool."
Asked whether Fast Forever would truly close the book on the franchise, Rodriguez said, "It'll be maybe the last one for us; we're like a bridge to another generation, we're passing the baton on. But I don't know, you talk to Vin and maybe it'll never end."
Beyond the film, at least one Fast & Furious television series is in development, expanding on the franchise's legacy characters. Brewster said, "I so admire the Taylor Sheridan universe, so I feel like we can really do that with television too." She already has a pitch in mind centered on her character Mia and Paul Walker's character Brian: "have a son and a daughter so I'd love to follow their trajectory and see what hell it is to raise kids that have Mia's genes, Brian's genes and Dom's genes."
Inside the L.A. screening, Diesel delivered an extended, emotional speech, recalling that after the "amazing experience" of Cannes, the studio told him, "We're going to take that experience and bring it back home. I thought that's incredible, that's everything." He teased the tone of the upcoming film, saying, "There's going to be an emotion you have when you watch this film — start getting used to that."
Diesel revealed that Fast Forever went through four different writers across four years of development. "After I read the script, halfway through, one tear. By the end of the script, that we crafted and worked so hard to make right for you after four years, I was crying. And I couldn't hold it back," he said, adding, "sometimes even the toughest guys in the world need to cry."
He closed his remarks by acknowledging Paul Walker's daughter, Meadow, in the audience, recalling, "25 years ago I was sitting in this row and I was sitting with Paul Walker," and calling their friendship "the greatest gift God could bestow upon you. So watch this movie and see where this eternal brotherhood started in every frame."
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
