Last March, Vin Diesel was adamant that he wouldn’t let the nascent Coronavirus pandemic affect the release of his two upcoming movies. The actor even said he would disregard the studio’s advice and travel to China in order to promote comic book adaptation Bloodshot, but as we all know that certainly didn’t happen as the world was almost completely locked down.
Bloodshot only played for a couple of weeks before theaters around the globe were forced to close their doors, leading to a swift release on VOD that’s now become standard practice for the very few titles that actually hit the big screen in 2020. Around the same time, the action star was still confident that blockbuster sequel Fast & Furious 9 would also arrive as planned in April, before the latest entry in the massively popular franchise was shelved for over a year.
The pic is still scheduled for release in the last weekend of May, even if the recovery of the theatrical industry is taking a whole lot longer than anyone could have predicted nine or ten months ago. And in a new interview, Diesel confirmed that he remains 100% committed to the idea of the cinema being the only place to check out the latest adventure for Dominic Toretto and his extended family.
“I’m so committed to the theatrical experience. Obviously, I’ve dedicated my life to cinema. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that we’re going to be there on May 28th with a movie that everybody is going to want to see together.”
There’ve been plenty of movies that have skipped theaters entirely and been sent straight to streaming or VOD, while others have opted for the simultaneous strategy. Thankfully, though, this won’t be happening with Fast & Furious 9, because the sort of logic and gravity-defying action that the series has become renowned for simply wouldn’t have the same sort of impact if audiences were to see it for the first time on anything smaller than a cinema screen.