‘Fast and Furious 9’ Will Film in April 2019

The cast of The Fate of the FuriousLately, all Fast and Furious-related talk has been around The Rock and Jason Statham’s spin-off Hobbs and Shaw, but we finally have word when the franchise’s next sequel will begin filming.

 

According to GWW, Fast and Furious 9 will begin filming on 20 April 2019, with Justin Lin returning to direct. This would seemingly confirm reports that the film will not be arriving next year. The latest sequel was originally scheduled to debut in 2019, but with filming only starting in April, that pushes the release window out to Spring 2020 at the absolute earliest. Lin had stepped away from the franchise after Furious 6, but Vin Diesel has claimed that Lin will be directing the ninth and tenth films in the franchise.

 

It’s fair to say that Lin’s work since stepping away from the franchise has not been spectacular. The director has since gone on to helm Star Trek Beyond and produce a handful of TV shows (Scorpion, S.W.A.T. and the Magnum P.I. reboot). GWW also report that though Lin will be directing both of the next two sequels, they will not be shot back-to-back, as was once believed.

 

No other story details have been released at the moment, but we can imagine that the story will continue the pursuit for Charlize Theron’s villain Cipher, who escaped capture at the end of the The Fate of the Furious. Vin Diesel has confirmed that Jordana Brewster will be returning as Dom’s sister Mia, while the story will presumably show Vin Diesel’s Dom and Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty raising Dom’s son Brian after the events of the previous film, reinforcing the theme of ‘family’ that has been so common in the recent sequels. It is unlikely that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson will be returning for Fast & Furious 9 – much was made of his falling out with Vin Diesel on the set of The Fate of the Furious, and Johnson’s hectic filming schedule over the next year or so means he probably won’t have time time to return, although an appearance in the tenth movie is not out of the question.

 

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