Only Vin Diesel, a man who loves a franchise more than just about anybody else in Hollywood, could end up turning the “final” entry in a long-running series into an entire trilogy, with Fast X set to round out the saga in style by serving as its 10th, 11th, and potentially 12th installment all at once.
It’s an unusual decision from a creative standpoint, albeit one that makes total sense from Universal’s point of view when the studio will be desperate to milk its biggest cash cow for every penny before Dominic Toretto and his family ride off into the sunset for good, but it sounds as though we’re in for a treat when it comes to the villain of the piece.
Jason Momoa is talented and charismatic enough to ensure we’d at least be getting one of the most memorable villains in a series that hasn’t exactly been drowning in them, but that doesn’t mean anyone was expecting his nefarious Dante to earn comparisons to the Joker when the first reactions to Fast X dropped following last night’s premiere.
We already know that Fast X is going retcon crazy once again after establishing Momoa’s big bad as the son of Joaquim de Almeida’ Hernan Reyes, making him the latest unexpected family member to appear out of nowhere; something The Fast Saga has a hilarious penchant for after the recent additions of Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, John Cena’s Jakob Toretto, and Brie Larson’s daughter of Mr. Nobody, Tess.
Audiences only have to wait until the end of next week to find out if the unlikely hype turns out to be true, but it would be fittingly insane it Momoa does indeed end up channeling the Clown Prince of Crime.