When Fast X premiered in Rome earlier this year, Vin Diesel said something that made fans of the Fast And Furious movies take notice. It had always been assumed that Fast X and Fast XI were the final two chapters of the franchise. Fambly was running out of road.
However, Diesel teased the possibility of yet another movie in the franchise beyond part XI despite the marketing tagging it as:
“The beginning of the end of the saga”.
Was a three-part finale on the cards? When a spin-off, Hobbs & Reyes, was announced to return Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs to the series and fill the gap between Fast X and Fast XI, it looked like he may have either been talking about that, or plans were still fluid. Fast X director Louis Leterrier gave an interview with GamesRadar ahead of Fast X getting a full home release, and he had this to say:
“The one thing about Vin is like when he’s on a press line, he will say anything to get out of that press line. And I’m kind of like him and go, ‘Yeah, sure, we will go to the moon in the next one. Bye.’ And then you never forget!
Obviously the next one is coming, and then yeah, one movie at a time. I think the one thing that Hollywood keeps reminding us is that it’s one step at a time, put one foot forward at a time.
Let’s count our blessings. We’re very lucky this movie was well-received and well-loved, people went to see it in a movie theater and now they’re going to see it at home. It’s one at a time.
I mean maybe what he was saying is that there’s 25 years of filmmaking and storytelling, three acts, two hours and two movies, between the last one and this one, might not be enough to tell the story that is needed, and that’s what we’re figuring out these days.”
Fast X was the latest new instalment of a super-global-mega-franchise to struggle at the box office as moviegoers taste seem to be changing. They are demanding something new to make them step away from their couches and multiple streaming services. Much like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, it was significantly down from the $1 billion take of the previous installment, and an OK haul ($719.1 million) was hamstrung by a huge $340 million budget.
Alarm bells would have rung at Universal around their normally reliable franchise.
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