A lot has happened in the Fast and Furious world over the past several days. First, Fast and Furious 9 got pushed back from the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2020. Then, we learned that the rumored Hobbs and Shaw spinoff was definitely moving forward (and will be released in 2019), prompting lots of speculation that the spinoff may have caused the change of date. What we do definitely know is that there is going to be a delay, and now Vin Diesel has spoken out about how he feels about the release date getting pushed. He said:
I know there has been a lot of speculation as to why the Fast 9 release date was pushed... but it would be unfair to say it is anyone's fault. As we plot the course to expand the Fast & Furious universe, one must be mindful to take stock of the roads we took to get here. The pillars of authenticity, family and most importantly, our loyal fan's perspective has been instrumental in procuring success.
Taking to Instagram, Vin Diesel made it clear that although the next official movie with the main cast has been pushed to 2020, it's not the fault of any one specific person or event that caused the change. This is in stark contrast to his co-star Tyrese Gibson, who earlier this week called out Dwayne Johnson for being the catalyst that led to Fast 9 getting pushed onto the backburner in favor of the spinoff moving forward.
The rumor mill has stated the spinoff may have been pushed ahead of Fast and Furious 9 in order to secure Justin Lin for the next Fast movie. Justin Lin's a busy director, and if he were to come back for Fast and Furious 9, reportedly he wouldn't be able to work on the movie in time to fit its original allotted release date. This information hasn't been confirmed, by any means, but if it ends up being true, the new movie starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham could have been greenlighted to fill in the gap. That would also explain why the decision is good for fans, as most have generally approved of Lin's Fast efforts so far (Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast 5 and Fast & Furious 6).
According to Vin Diesel, while fans might be a little upset that the still currently untitled Fast and Furious 9 has already been pushed back, and pushed back by the whole year, there is something coming up that fans should be pumped about.
However, like any vehicle that has run around the globe 8 times, the franchise is in need of maintenance. My good friend and the godfather of Universal, Ron Meyer has granted me the time to do just that. We have some very exciting news to share soon... stay tuned.
So, I guess while we wait for the spinoff and for new Fast and Furious 9, we can have a lot of fun speculating what that "maintenance" means. In the meantime, here's what is heading to theaters right now.
