UPDATE: The Globe and Mail’s Barry Hertz tells me that Universal’s delay is likely connected to Diesel’s relatively under-reported civil trial for sexual assault, which was originally scheduled for a jury trial this past August but has now been pushed to February 2026.
All of the details are covered in his forthcoming book, “Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters”
EARLIER: The Fast & Furious franchise has been burning rubber and brain cells since 2001, churning out ten increasingly absurd instalments. Now, after two decades of racing melodrama, and the last instalment being titled “Fast X: Part 1,” there’s no ‘Part 2’ in sight.
A new update from Jason Momoa, who is supposed to return for the sequel, reveals that despite Vin Diesel’s constant hype, there is no timeline, or script, for another movie (via The Playlist).
I would love to come back and play, man. People all over the world love that character—it’s crazy. But I got no script, so not that soon.
In case you missed the end credits of “Fast X” (and honestly, I wouldn’t blame you), Gal Gadot’s Gisele, who absolutely died in ‘Fast & Furious 6,’ popped up alive. Diesel has also been teasing another “surprise” return: Brian O’Conner. Yes, that’s the character played by the late Paul Walker, who will apparently be back. How? Who knows. Magic? Deepfake? Voodoo?
As for the supposed return to roots Diesel keeps promising—back to L.A., back to cars, back to actual street racing—color me skeptical. This franchise left “the streets” almost two decades ago.
‘Fast X: Part 2’ (or ‘Fast 11,’ or ‘Fast: Resurrection’—whatever they’re calling it) still doesn’t have a locked release date. Back in April, Diesel went on his social media to make an appeal to the studio, asking them to update “the best fans in the world” on when they can expect the next film.
“Universal… Please tell the best fans in the world, when the next movie is coming out. Please.” Diesel wrote on Instagram.
Diesel’s mother is an astrologist. Maybe she can predict the release date for him.
No, but seriously, it’s clear that Diesel wouldn't be saying this if the next instalment was actually guaranteed to happen. Something’s going on here, and it probably has to do with Universal stalling development.
The last one, “Fast X,” was a failure for Universal; it ended on a cliffhanger, but audiences didn’t seem to care enough to demand the continuation. It didn't leave people wanting more. Oh, and the film was exorbitantly expensive, with a budget of $340M.
There have been multiple attempts at cracking the script for this next film, with, at least, three writers having already been hired. The original April 4th, 2025, release date was also pushed back to March 2026, and it’s now, supposedly, aiming for summer 2027.
Last year, Jeff Sneider, via his newsletter, reported that if another ‘Fast’ movie were ever to happen, Universal would be going back to basics, aiming to go “lean and mean” with the eleventh film in the series in an attempt to cut spending that saw the production of “Fast X” inflate to a ridiculously overindulgent $340M budget. “Fast X” pulled in $714.5M worldwide — the previous two had earned over one billion dollars each at the box office.
Thatcher shows up on-screen for, at most, 10 seconds. She looks remarkably like Thatcher and comes off as almost too polished, non-human like. Further clues are pointing at AI.