Director Justin Lin has directed four of the previous installments in theFast & Furiousfranchise and has now returned for a fifth to helmFast & Furious 9. But what has brought him back into theFast & Furiousfold? Well, he felt he had to come back in order to get justice for Han.
“Han means so much to mebecause he was a character before Fast & Furious.”
For those who may be unaware, Han, portrayed by actor Sung Kang, first appeared in Lin’sBetter Luck Tomorrow, which retroactively served as an origin story for the character. At an anniversary screening for the movie, Lin was made aware of the#Justice for Hansocial media campaign. Lin has even referenced the campaign in the trailer forF9as it promises that “justice is coming”.
Justin Linexited the franchise with the sixth movie,Fast & Furious 6, which ended with footage already seen in the third movie,Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift, of the seemingly fatal car crash that killed Han.Fast & Furious 6then reveals that this event took place much later than we thought and that Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw was responsible, killing Han as revenge for what Dom and his crew had done to his brother, Owen Shaw. Statham then became the villain for the next movie, before being brought into Dom’s family with open arms in the eighth movie,The Fate of the Furious, until finally appearing in a buddy-picture with Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs in the spin-offHobbs & Shaw.
Well, it turns out this was not only somewhat confusing for audiences but for Justin Lin too, with the director feeling like he needed to “correct something” in the franchise with regards to Han.
“Somebody asked me about Han and [Deckard] Shaw. I was like: ‘Wait, what? Shaw is at the barbecue in 8?’ [laughs] Really, I was so confused. One of the big reasons to come back was I felt like we needed to correct something.”
Having killed one of Dom’s extended family members, before then trying to kill them all, it does seem a little crazy that he ended up at a barbecue with them all. Sure, he may have saved Dom’s son in one ofThe Fate of the Furious’standout sequences, but there are boundaries, and the gang arguably forgave and forgot a little too quickly.
How exactly Han returns is a closely guarded secret, but it has been said thatanother character who returned from the dead, Letty, is instrumental in bringing him back. Letty herself, Michelle Rodriguez, has opened up about how important a character Han really is.
“Let’s just say we’re not hiding the fact that a lot of the stuff is crazy! In a lot of ways these movies are like the Olympic games. There are a lot of cultures that feel represented by individual characters from the franchise. And Han does that for an entire community.”
F9is scheduled to hit theaters on May 22. This comes to us fromGames Radar.
