It’s no secret that there was, is, and always will be a market for cinematic insanity (much to the delight of Ari Aster, we’re sure), but the Fast & Furious franchise was born in and molded by it. Indeed, who needs plot, sensibility, and an adherence to the laws of physics when you have gumption, a meaty budget, and family?
By all metrics, The Fast Saga has come to embrace its silliness with all the stone-faced confidence one would need for such a task, and the fact that such an embrace is apparent from its titling system is perhaps the single greatest testament to that. How many times has 2 Fast 2 Furious been lampooned at this point?
For Louis Leterrier, the director behind the upcoming Fast X and the yet-untitled sequel, there’s absolutely no shame to be had in all the nonsense. In an interview with Collider, Leterrier had no qualms with letting us all know that he’s partial to the possibility of calling the sequel Fast: Resurrection of all things.
“I think we should call it Fast: Resurrection. There’s always a moment in a franchise where they call it Resurrection. It’s always the worst one, and I’m always always involved in it! No, it’s true, you know, we’ll figure it out. Ultimately, at one point, the title matters because you need to search for it, and everything. What I love about Fast is that they check in. No one goes like, ‘Oh Fast Five, yes, absolutely. Which one was that? It’s the real one. Exactly.'”
He would go on to point out that while he has a soft spot for these domestic titles, they don’t hold a candle to the Japanese translations, which take the unhinged ethos of the franchise to a whole other level.
“My favorite ones are the Japanese titles because it’s like Wild Speed. This one is [Wild Speed: Fire Boost]. The other one was like [Sky Mission], or something like this. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I understand what you’re talking about.’ Safe Heist? I think there was one called Real Heist.”
Personally, I’m pulling for the Fast franchise to end the saga with the most bloated title they can think of, purely to mark what will no doubt be a miraculous occasion; after all, if Sony can get away with Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World, surely Universal can manage to distribute something like Fast X: Wildfire Boost Mission to the Sky – The Return of Dante’s Revenge: The Reckoning or something like that.
Fast X is due in theaters on May 19.