As the Fast & Furious franchise has continued its unstoppable expansion, almost everyone of note from movies past has been brought back for at least a cameo appearance with the family getting larger and larger as a result.
In a gut-punch of bittersweet irony, Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner is alive and well in canon despite the actor’s passing almost 10 years ago, and such typically far-fetched explanations as fake deaths and amnesia have been weaponized to bring back an ongoing procession of returning favorites.
However, there are only two chapters left before The Fast Saga draws to a close, so a series hardly renowned for its dramatic stakes will need to ensure that audiences feel a palpable sense of danger. As chance would have it, director Louis Leterrier has issued an ominous warning in an interview with Empire magazine, promising that bodies are going to be left on the floor when Dominic Toretto and the gang come face-to-face with Jason Momoa’s villainous Dante.
“There’s a war brewing. It’s coming to an end, and it is a race to the finish. There will be some tremendous casualties.”
The real question is who won’t be making it to the credits alive, because you’d think Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, and Ludacris will live to fight another day, but anyone beyond that who isn’t so deeply embedded in Fast & Furious could end up as cannon fodder. Fast X releases in May, so those palms are going to get sweatier by the day.
