Universal Apologises For The “F9” Space Car

Universal Pictures
If there’s one thing NBCUniversal executive Donna Langley could take back from the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, it would be taking it to space.

During a recent interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, Langley says the inclusion of a sequence featuring Tyrese Gibson’s Roman and Ludacris‘ Ted in a rocket car in orbit was a mistake: “I’m sorry that we sent them into space. We can never get that genie back.”

Fans had long joked about the franchise doing such a thing, but when it actually happened, the response to the sequence was decidedly mixed with plenty of complaints that the franchise had taken things too far.

That said, she says part of the reason for the success of the franchise has been the creative team being willing to listen to what fans want:

“We knew that we had to figure out how to grow it. We made a conscious decision to pivot to a sort of globe-trotting heist scenario. Vin was an early adopter of talking to his fans directly. As we saw that growing, we saw where the conversation was going. We’ve always been very fan-first on the Fast franchise.”

“Fast X” released back in 2023 with the sequel currently in development and aiming for an April 2027 release. Franchise star Vin Diesel is developing a brand new Fast & Furious short film, a sequel to 2009 short “Los Bandoleros”.

Source: Variety