Officially, the Fast & Furious franchise consists of nine feature films, with the tenth along the way, plus a spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw (2019), which did not please Vin Diesel at all. However, that is only section of the story: true fans understand that the Gospel According to Toretto has spread through animated series ?Fast & Furious: Spies at Full Throttle (2017-2021)?, Fast X movie , an attraction in every the Universal theme parks and several short films simply for the, very insiders.
The first of them gets the incredible title of The Turbo Charged Prelude for just two 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and is, well, a simple prelude to the next film, devoted to how Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) manages to evade the authorities. from Los Angeles until landing in Miami. The producers' idea was to determine a kind of connective tissue between your first two installments and fill a narrative gap that, in the end, consolidated Brian as the absolute protagonist of the story, since Diesel didn't want to return. A mere promotional material created for the web ?hence its aesthetic, almost worth a Sisq� video clip?, although some UNITED STATES cinemas showed it before 2 Fast 2 Furious to give the public a more complete experience.
While you won't find anyone defending The Turbo Charged Prelude for just two 2 Fast 2 Furious as an essential piece of mythology, things have become different in terms of the next short. Los Bandoleros (2009), written and directed by Vin Diesel himself, introduces Tego Calder�n and Don Omar into the saga, two musicians turned actors who be essential pieces in a few subsequent installments, especially Fast 5 (2011). Not just that, but it addittionally details what happened to the characters of Dom and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) following the original film, along with recovering Sung Kang's Han, whose friendship with the paterfamilias had been established by the end of Fast & Furious: Tokyo Race (2006). More than an interlude between movies, Los Bandoleros is a refoundation of the franchise, a fresh beginning where Diesel allowed himself to look at a far more poetic and relaxed tone, in keeping with the natural settings of the Dominican Republic (where he himself, a reggaeton enthusiast, insisted which should be set). It is not strictly necessary that you see it in your next fast and furious marathon, nonetheless it responds to the authorial vision of the primary creative engine of it. That makes it an interesting curiosity.
However, the story will not end there. Only the most dedicated to the reason know this, but you will find a secret, semi-official film that, thanks to director Justin Lin's ability to slip under Universal's radar, can be viewed as part of the experience. From a certain point of view, sure, but take our word for this: the crime dramedy Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) traces the origins of the type Han Lue, also played by Kang (can you imagine any other actor in that role?). He and Lin have confirmed on multiple occasions that it's indeed the same character, so there is no reason, other than the most obvious and boring copyright issue, to exclude her from canon. In fact, their presence transforms this cinematic universe into a more expansive and richly nuanced place: it's funny to believe that while Dom and Brian were meeting in downtown L.A., the characters in Better Luck Tomorrow were living their own ordeal a few feet away. kilometers of distance.
The story of how this indie film found its way into F&F is fascinating enough to miss. When screenwriter Chris Morgan heard that Universal was open to ideas for a third film in the series, he showed up at his offices with a pitch about how exactly Dominc Toretto decides to travel to Japan to investigate the murder of an old friend. Since Diesel had not been yet interested in time for what would become his family ? he only wished to create a brief final cameo following the studio gave him the rights to The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) ? Morgan contacted Justin Lin to assume a new protagonist. The director thought it would be a great opportunity to cast an Asian-American actor because the franchise's new hero, however the producers flatly refused, arguing that someone like Lucas Black would have more potential at the box office. Lin reluctantly agreed, asking them to at least let him revise the script to make it less "offensive and outdated" (those were his words).