Michelle Rodriguez Threw A Little Shade At Recent Fast And Furious Movies (And I Get It, 'Cause They Did Go To Space)

Michelle Rodriguez riding motorcycle in F9
(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

The Fast & Furious franchise has been going since 2001, and eventually there will come a time when the main film series, a.k.a. The Fast Saga, concludes. When exactly that will happen is unclear, as Fast & Furious 11 was taken off the 2026 movies schedule a while back. That said, apparently Michelle Rodriguez is pleased with the direction this final entry will be taking if the shade she through at the recent Fast & Furious movies is any indication.

Let me set the stage. Vin Diesel posted a video on Instagram for “Toretto Tuesday” where he was joined Rodriguez, who’s played Letty Ortiz in seven of the Fast & Furious movies. The two of them had just come from dinner together, and Diesel said that towards the end of the meal, he asked Rodriguez how she would “sum up the finale,” or what’s important to her about the finale, in one sentence. She answered:

To bring it back to the integrity that we started with.

Yeah, I think anyone who’s been following along with the Fast & Furious movies knows exactly what she’s talking about. This franchise started out telling stories of street races and heists, and now it prioritizes explosive action, though still car-focused, and the laws of physics continually being broken. Hell, it was only four years ago in F9 that Tyrese Gibson’s Roman and Ludacris’ Tej went into space in a rocket car to destroy a satellite. That’s a far cry from stealing DVDs in Los Angeles.

That’s not even to say going in this more fantastical direction was a bad move. This arguably started with 2011’s Fast Five, and not only did it vastly outgross its four predecessors, every Fast & Furious movie since then has made more than $700 million worldwide, with Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious both crossing $1 billion. Still, it sounds like Michelle Rodriguez is glad that Fast & Furious 11 will be going back to the franchise’s roots, something Mia Toretto actor Jordana Brewster also wanted to happen. You can watch the video of Rodriguez and Vin Diesel together below:

Exactly how that integrity will brought back remains to be seen, and let’s not forget that there’s still the lingering Dante Reyes’ storyline to be resolved from Fast X. The good news is that things seem to be moving in a positive direction for Fast & Furious 11. Although it was rumored earlier this month that the project could be canceled if the budget couldn’t be reduced, Diesel posted some pictures and a video a few days ago of himself with Universal Pictures’ Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Moses, who said that “we got it solved.”

Ideally this means we’ll finally start getting more detailed updates on Fast & Furious 11 and when it will begin production. In the meantime, you’re welcome to stream The Fast and the Furious with your Netflix subscription if you’d like to revisit how this high octane franchise came to be.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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