Fast & Furious 11is reportedly coming next year, and there are still countless details about the upcoming sequel that remain shrouded in mystery. There’s a lot ofpressure riding onFast & Furious 11to drive the franchise back in the right direction following the underwhelming response toFast X, but certain comments from the sequel’s lead star have teased a questionable approach to the movie.
Vin Diesel has recently confirmed thatBrian O’Conner will somehow return inFast & Furious 11, likely using the same special effects and CGI that allowed Paul Walker’s likeness to be recreated inFurious 7.This announcement is definitely exciting for longtime audiences of the franchise, but it also represents a frustrating trend that’s bogging down the most recentFast & Furioussequels.
Fast & Furious Is Relying Too Heavily On Nostalgia
The Sequels Keep Bringing Back Faces From The Past
For many years now,Fast & Furioushas relied too heavily on nostalgia to capture audiences’ attentionrather than the fun, creative stories that could be found in the early sequels. While there are certainly problems with2 Fast 2 FuriousandTokyo Drift, there’s something about the originality and creativity of these stories that seems totally missing from the most recent sequels.
The biggest indicator of this problem is thegrowing reliance on bringing back old faces, both as loose cameos and returning characters. This trend started with Han inF9, a character who really should have been dead by all accounts and whose return didn’t make much sense, and later continued with even more egregious examples such as Gisele’s comeback at theend ofFast X.
Not only do these returning characters become less exciting with each passing example, but it also feels like the sequels are betraying the audience’s investment in the story by relying solely on nostalgia to make money.EvenFast X’s villain has an unnecessary connection toFast Fivethat adds very little to the narrative.
Not only does the decision risk ruining Brian’s emotional ending fromFurious 7, but there’s every possibility that Paul Walker’s appearance could overshadow theactualstory that fans are coming back to see resolved.
Diesel’s recent comments about Brian’s return inFast & Furious 11is just the latest example of this ongoing trend. Not only does the decision risk ruiningBrian’s emotional ending fromFurious 7, but there’s every possibility thatWalker’s appearance could overshadow the actual story that audiences are coming back to see resolved.
Brian’s Return Won’t Work Without The Right Story
The Character Needs A Clear Reason To Come Back
Ultimately, Brian’s return means nothing if it’s not woven into the story effectively. The reasonFurious 7is one of thebestFast & Furiousmoviesisn’t because of how well it handles Walker’s tragic death and Brian O’Conner’s subsequent departure, but becausethe story has a real thematic depththat runs deeper than cameos and nostalgia bait.
Furious 7is far enough into the franchise to have elements of nostalgia, such as the friendship between Dom and Brian, while still maintaining a cohesive story that remains at the forefront of the movie. The writers did a great job of ensuring that Deckard’s vengeance against Dom and Brian was the primary narrative, and these minor details merely enhanced the story.
But inF9andFast X, these pieces of nostalgia appear with so much more importance, grandeur, and frequency that it’s much harder for audiences to get invested in the story at hand.This cannot be the case withFast & Furious 11, especially when it’s dealing with a character return as important and long-awaited as Brian O’Conner.
The other problem with these excessive cameos and callbacks is that, after a while, they begin to overshadow and monopolize each other. For example,Fast 11already has several major characters to focus on, including returning faces like Gisele and Agent Hobbs.WeavingBrian O’Conner’sFast & Furiousreturninto this already stacked narrative won’t be easy, and it risks demoting the other characters unfairly.
Fast & Furious 11 Needs To Be The End Of The Franchise
There’s Clearly No Need To Push The Series Any Further
Fast & Furious11needs to be the end of this long-running action franchise to maintain its strong legacy and devoted fan base.The sequels are clearly running out of ideasand relying so heavily on the past instead of the future that it simply doesn’t make sense for the story to continue any further.
There’s already beenplenty of discussion aboutFast 11being the final movie in this series. At the same time, multipleFast & Furiousspinoffs in development seem to indicate otherwise. Although concepts likeHobbs & Shaw2and an all-femaleFast & Furiousreboot seem exciting on the surface, there’s nothing to suggest they’ll overcome this unfortunate trend.
There’s never going to be a more fitting end for theFast & Furiousfranchise than its upcoming eleventh movie, and every sequel that continues past that point would likely feel forced and unnecessary. There are plenty of great installments in this acclaimed action franchise, but they’re slowly becoming overshadowed by the more underwhelming, unimaginative sequels.
