Plenty of major franchises are packed to bursting point with fan service, but Universal’s Fast & Furious is one of the very few that actually listens closely to longtime supporters of the property and incorporates things that they want to see into future movies. You’d like the crew to head to outer space? Why the hell not. We haven’t destroyed a submarine yet? It’s on the list. #JusticeForHan? You bet.
The latter even became an official Fast & Furious hashtag due to a lot of viewers being left dismayed at how quickly the death of Sung Kang’s character was glossed over. After biting the dust once before in Tokyo Drift, we were forced to relive it all over again at the end of the sixth installment. Only this time with the retconned twist that Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw was behind it all along.
After acting as the big bad in Furious 7, Shaw was almost instantly forgiven and welcomed into the fold in the next chapter, and even got his own spinoff alongside Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs. Statham is more than willing to return for the final two movies in the long-running series, where he’ll probably come face to face with Han, and in a new interview, Kang admitted he’s got no problem with his onscreen murderer getting a redemption arc.
“We’ll have explanations in Fast 9. Everybody loves Jason, so why not, right? I’ve got to include him, right? Hey, if I can die 10 times, he can turn into a good guy from a bad guy. It’s not that big of a deal, but it’s a course correction for the audience. Never dismiss and disrespect the audience. They are the reason why the movies exist, so you can’t just ignore them. It’s cool and great that a studio like Universal listens, they listen. That’s a course correction. That’s the justice.”
It’ll be interesting to see what explanation Fast & Furious 9 comes up with to let us know how Han survived certain death, and there’s a high chance it won’t make a lick of sense, but audiences will be happy enough just to see him back. In any case, Statham is expected to return for parts ten and eleven in some capacity, bringing the #JusticeForHan movement full circle should they end up staring each other down.