Even on its ninth film entry, the aptly titled F9, director Justin Lin still sees this new movie as merely one part of a larger storyline within the Fast & Furious franchise.
In a conversation with Deadline, Lin, who also directed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, discussed his thought process on using F9's story to set up new stakes for Dom Toretto and his crew. He explained that "very early on, we decided that this was not going to be a one-film experience — and that's usually been my approach. Whenever we make a sequel, I go all out for that one, and we figure out the next one as we go. This one, F9, is the first film of the final chapter, so there's a couple more to go, but I think it was very liberating, creatively, to think of it in those terms."
Lin made a similar comment to The Hollywood Reporter about why this trilogy-based mindset was adopted for writing F9, a departure from how he directed previous franchise movies as standalone experiences. "I was thinking of it as one chapter. It became very clear to me that if we were going to do that, we were going to need some real estate."
"To the studio's credit, it was like, 'Yeah, let's do it,'" he stated. "That's what we've been doing since I've been back. … processing it as almost like a trilogy as a final chapter."
Among the first movies to be delayed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, F9 recently dropped its second official trailer following a brief Super Bowl spot. Facing off against The Fate of the Furious villain Cipher, Dom's secret brother Jakob and his "private army," the trailer features more interactions with Mia Toretto, Magdalene Shaw and a still-alive Han, as well as an extended vehicular chase involving a magnetic device capable of pushing and pulling other cars away. It also sees Tej and Roman launch a car with rocket engines attached off the top of a plane, seemingly confirming that F9 will take its characters into outer space.
Directed by Justin Lin, F9 stars Vin Diesel, John Cena, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel and Sung Kang, with Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron and Cardi B. The film arrives in theaters June 25.