Remember the Fast and the Furious movies? Ever since Fast Xhit theaters in 2023, fans have been anxiously awaiting the next installment in the saga. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraubin studioat the Toronto International Film Festival, fan favorite Fast family member Sung Kang talked about the “little tidbits” he knows about the hopefully-still-upcoming Fast Foreverand the future of the Fast franchise.
Kang is attending TIFF to premiere his sophomore feature as a director, Drifter, which in and of itself should be of great interest to Fast fans. Drifter is an original street racing sports action movie–the perfect thing to tide us over until Fast and Furious officially returns. Kang also stars in it alongside Tamara Braun, Gregory Cruz, Emelia Hartford, and Shane Johnson. Even those who aren’t familiar with street racing outside the cinema know what drifting is largely because of Kang. His character in the Fast franchise, Han, was of course introduced in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Famously, Han was so popular that even though he [spoiler alert] died at the end of Tokyo Drift, subsequent movies went back in time to make sure he could still be part of the plot. Later, they ret-conned his death from an accident to a murder. (The family may have forgiven Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), but the North remembers! Eventually, however, F9 went full soap opera and revealed that his death had been faked. Han returned alive in Fast X as well… but what about the next one?
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Vin Diesel recently shared that he’s looking to start filming at the end of 2026, and that the most recent version of the script, written by Michael Lesslie, made him cry. Director Louis Leterrier, on the other hand, told Polygon that he has yet to read a script. Meanwhile, Paul Walker‘s brother has been in the news talking about how generative AI could bring his character Brian back to the movies. Remember that while Walker died in 2013, the character is living just slightly off-screen. Must we change that? Sure, Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) may have gone to space, but that doesn’t mean we need to go to the Uncanny Valley next.
So, reliable and consistent updates about Fast Forever are a bit difficult to come by. Kang was, for the record, even surprised to hear from Collider that Fast Forever allegedly has a release date of 2028. “You know more than I do,” he told Weintraub.
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Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
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🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
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01
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You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
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You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
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You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
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The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
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How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
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Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
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Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
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What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
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Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
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It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
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Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
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James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
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Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
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Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
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Kang’s Not Convinced That ‘Fast Forever’ Will Be the End of the Franchise
Image via TIFF
When asked about his personal hopes for what is meant to be the final film, Kang offered:
“Well, I can say this: the little tidbits that I do get from the Fast Family is that I know that they are so appreciative of the audience that has been supporting us over the years, and so they want to make sure that they honor that community, and they are doing their best. I have faith that Universal and all the producers, the writers, the filmmakers, they’re going to put their heart into this film. So, if that’s a testament to what the movie’s going to be, I feel like it’s going to be something that is fitting for a finale — ifit is a finale.”
Back it up! What did that last part mean? Is Fast Forever not going to be the end? There have been rumblings about other franchise installments, including a sequel to Hobbs & Shaw titled Hobbs & Reyesthat would presumably star Jason Momoa alongside Dwayne Johnsonand an unnamed all female spin-off. That’s always gone over well for big franchises like this one, historically…
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But if Kang thinks that Fast and Furious‘ main canon will continue beyond Fast Forever, or knows something that we don’t about future films, that’s pretty interesting. They should probably make the dang eleventh movie first, and then worry about what’s next, but it’s cool to think about! Despite the occasional production drama, this one of the silliest, goofiest, most joyous franchises in Hollywood and we need it back ASAP.
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