'When I shared my idea with Vin Diesel, he said "Wow, we're gonna do it".'
It is fair to say that in terms of the action sequences, the Fast and the Furious franchise has definitely.... grown.
What was initially almost entirely about drag racing and drifting in the first three movies soon evolved into bus flips (Fast & Furious), train heists (Fast Five), tank chases (Fast & Furious 6), stealth helicopter shoot-outs (Furious 7), and exploding submarines (Fast & Furious 8).
It looks like there is no intention of slowing down (driving pun, nailed it) with the upcoming Fast & Furious 9, which is due to arrive in Irish cinemas on Thursday 8, July, and released its brand new trailer this week:
Clip via Universal Ireland
We had the opportunity to chat to Justin Lin, the director and co-writer of Fast & Furious 9, but who has also directed the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth entries, and will remain on-board for both Fast 10 and Fast 11.
During our conversations with Lin, we had to ask, with the action and the set-pieces getting ever bigger, has there ever been a case that a stunt or sequence almost felt too big or too crazy for the franchise?
"There is a little bit of a... I don't want to say formula... but there is a process," Lin begins. "I think when we first set off on this journey, it was always about 'Hey, if we get another opportunity, let's not do the same thing again. Let's not let people box us in and label us, and let's really explore'.
"And so with that exploration, there will always be some crazy idea that a lot of times I have, and I have this little vault that I would put it in. The example is the plane sequence, that I was actually working on since Fast 4, and it was just an idea [then].
"But it felt right when we were doing [Fast & Furious 6] that it was going to come to life, and so I would say that I think that for us to push the boundary, it wouldn't be right if it was just to shock people.
"I think in this particular case, it is something that we had talked about. And I remember I was working on this one emotional character thread, and I thought 'Oh my goodness, this is the one!'"
"And I drove to Vin [Diesel]'s house, and I shared it with him and he said 'Wow, we're gonna do it! This is the one!' And it was a nice moment, because it felt like we'd earned, we'd found the right moment for it."
Check out our full interview with Justin below, as well as some chat from Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and John Cena.
