Vin Diesel revealed the title and logo for the tenth and final installment of the Fast Franchise just yesterday and implied that day one of production had begun. Simply called Fast X, many people commented on the post but one comment, in particular, got to Vin Diesel and he began firing off some pretty sentimental posts that seem to suggest that he agreed with the assessment.
An Instagram user by the name of @the_hippie_gunner left a comment on that Fast X post that read, “@vindiesel I know my opinion doesn’t matter, but I think many of us would like a classic film for the finale, the first was a classic. I’ve followed your work since I was a boy, I used to pretend to be Riddick, I used to perform your diner scene in xXx, a classic film, like the first, would complete the Fast & Furious. I’m sure it will entertain many, but I want to see the Vin from the end of Multifacial talking about his dad, that’s the same Vin as Dom talking about his Dad with Brian by the charger, keep being you man, you bring nothing by love and it shows, you got this. Peace. – Your 7-year-old Fan, now 26.” You can check out Vin Diesel highlighting the comment below!
The comment clearly got to Diesel because he made two posts in reference to the user’s comment. The first read, “Your opinion means everything” but he didn’t properly tag him and then he followed that up with a new post that simply just read, “Give me a second to reflect…”, which tagged the user appropriately. The actor then posted two more Instagram posts that went into detail about how the opinion of the fans does matter. In one post, that has since been deleted, he points to how he asked his fans on Facebook in 2010 who he should work with and when they said The Rock, he made that happen. The role of Hobbs was originally intended for Tommy Lee Jones but Diesel went with what the fans wanted, also saying Hobbs is still The Rock’s greatest role and he’s thankful for what he brought to the saga. He also said that Jason Statham was a case of fan-generated casting, that continues to work. The post featured an image of 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, hinting that he wants things to go a bit back to basics too.
The next post, featuring an image of the late Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and Jordana Brewster hugging in character from Fast Five, gives some insight into the production start of Fast X. Diesel reveals that fan opinion has always mattered and that when he first got the Fast X script, Jordana Brewster’s Mia Toretto wasn’t even in it. This disappointed Diesel immensely and he pointed to how he didn’t want to make the fourth film without Paul Walker and that fans sent petitions to the studio demanding Michelle Rodriguez’s return as Letty after Fast Five. Diesel says that his daughter told director Justin Lin “NO MIA NO FAST 10!” This seems to indicate that while Mia was originally absent in the Fast X script, she’s back in.
Another interesting tidbit from this post is that he speaks about Paul Walker’s mom asking him to bring Brian back to the big screen. He doesn’t go into detail about how it will happen or even IF it will happen but he does say, “I don’t have to tell you how serious I take that.” He then goes on to say, “Fast could never have been here without the profound love and brotherhood between Dom and Brian, established in 2001. Yeah, I’m talking too much, but damn, life is short and your comment touched me and hit a cord. Thank you for believing in me, in us…I won’t rest until I make you, him…and the universe proud.” You can check out that post below!
Fans have been wanting the Fast Franchise to go back to basics for quite some time now, especially as each installment seemed to defy the laws of physics and slide into a world of complete unrealism. The bigger the films got in scope, particularly Fast Five and beyond, has made the franchise a multi-billion global phenomenon so I get why Universal Pictures has only accelerated that but we legit had characters go into space in the last film. This was something that even hardcore fans had to shake their heads at.
I would love to see more of a focus on character dynamics over spectacle and maybe take it back a bit to the world of street racing, something that set the tone for the franchise back when the first film was released in 2001. I’m not saying an Instagram user will change where Fast X is headed but since it’s being split into two movies, there is room to go back to the roots of what the franchise was. Just looking at all the comments on Diesel’s last four Instagram posts, it seems to be something that most of the fans really want. It’s definitely something that one of the Fast producers also seems to want as well.
What are YOUR thoughts on Fast X going back to the roots of the 2001 original film?