Officially, the Fast & Furious franchise includes nine feature films, with the tenth on the way, plus a spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw (2019), which didn't please Vin Diesel at all. However, that's only the main story: true fans understand that the Gospel According to Toretto has spread through animated series ?Fast & Furious: Spies at Full Throttle (2017-2021)?, video games, an attraction in all the Universal theme parks and a couple of short films just 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 straightforward prelude to the next film, devoted to how Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) manages to evade the authorities. from LA until landing in Miami. The producers' idea was to establish a kind of connective tissue between your first two installments and fill a narrative gap that, in the end, consolidated Brian because the absolute protagonist of the story, since Diesel did not want to return. Only promotional material created for the internet ?hence its aesthetic, almost worthy of a Sisq� video clip?, although some UNITED STATES cinemas showed it before 2 Fast 2 Furious to give the public a far more complete experience.
When you won't find anyone defending The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 2 Fast 2 Furious as an essential little bit of mythology, things are very different when it comes to 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). Fast X stream that, but it also details what happened to the characters of Dom and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) following the original film, besides recovering Sung Kang's Han, whose friendship with the paterfamilias had been established by the end of Fast & Furious: Tokyo Race (2006). A lot more than an interlude between movies, Los Bandoleros is a refoundation of the franchise, a fresh beginning where Diesel allowed himself to adopt a far more poetic and relaxed tone, commensurate with the natural settings of the Dominican Republic (where he himself, a reggaeton enthusiast, insisted that ought to be set). It is not strictly necessary that you view it in your next fast and furious marathon, nonetheless it responds to the authorial vision of the main creative engine of it. That makes it an interesting curiosity.
However, the story will not end there. Only probably the most dedicated to the cause know this, but you will find a secret, semi-official film that, because of director Justin Lin's capability to slip under Universal's radar, can be viewed as area of the experience. From the certain viewpoint, sure, but take our word for this: the crime dramedy Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) traces the origins of the character 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 exactly the same character, so there is no reason, other than the obvious and boring copyright issue, to exclude her from canon. Actually, their presence transforms this cinematic universe right into a more expansive and richly nuanced place: it's funny to think that while Dom and Brian were meeting in downtown L.A., the characters in Better Luck Tomorrow were living their very own ordeal just 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 arrived at his offices with a pitch about how exactly Dominc Toretto decides to travel to Japan to research the murder of a vintage friend. Since Diesel had not been yet interested in time for what would end up being his family ? he only wished to make a brief final cameo after the studio gave him the rights to The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) ? Morgan contacted Justin Lin to imagine a fresh protagonist. The director thought it could be a great possibility to cast an Asian-American actor because the franchise's new hero, but the producers flatly refused, arguing that someone like Lucas Black could have more potential at the box office. Lin reluctantly agreed, asking them to at least let him revise the script to create it less "offensive and outdated" (those were his words).