The Fast & Furious franchise has long since become famous for the chaotic and haphazard ways the sequels have been named, and it can all be traced back to the second chapter in the saga. When it was first announced that Paul Walker would be returning without Vin Diesel for a movie titled 2 Fast 2 Furious, the response was a collective ‘what the f*ck?’.
It sort of makes sense being the sophomore installment that increased both the fastness and the furiosity, but it’s also gloriously stupid. In the long run, 2 Fast 2 Furious was a pretty important moment in the long and winding history of the brand by not only confirming that there was a continued audience investment in the property, but it brought Tyrese’s Roman Pearce and Lucadris’ Tej into the mix for the first time, even if nobody could have guessed the bickering duo would be heading into outer space together eighteen years later.
Walker’s Brian O’Conner heads from Los Angeles to Miami looking for a fresh start, where he finds a new gang of racers and minor criminals to befriend. After being apprehended by the feds, he’s forced to reluctantly partner up with childhood buddy Roman to infiltrate a drug cartel and secure a pardon.
It’s not the best entry in Fast & Furious canon by any means, but it’s gone on to find cult status among longtime fans of the franchise, and marked the start of a slow shift into more action-orientated territory by putting more focus on the stunts than the actual racing. The opener was dominating the HBO Max most-watched list recently, and now 2 Fast 2 Furious is getting a shot, having climbed as high as tenth position on the viewership charts.