A stratospheric new trailer for Fast and Furious 9 has just dropped - if you're catching our drift. Here it is:
It's been nearly four years since we've hung out with Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his 'familia' of street-savvy, death-defying drivers. They may as well be superheroes.
However, as the world of film prepares to properly relaunch on the other side of the pandemic, F9 will soon hit the big screen - and according to Michelle Rodriguez, it's going to be hard to top.
F9 marks the return of director Justin Lin, who earlier helmed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, as well as the fourth, fifth and sixth instalments of the franchise.
The ninth film is bringing in a new adversary with particularly close ties to Dom: Jakob (John Cena), his younger brother who's on the hunt with his old foe Cipher (Charlize Theron). Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges and Nathalie Emmanuel are also returning, as well as Jordana Brewster as Mia and Sung Kang as Han, who's somehow back from the dead.
We spoke to Rodriguez, who plays Letty, ahead of the explosive trailer's release. She said: "To be quite honest, the kinds of things that are happening in the Fast world in this movie... pretty much astounded me."
She continued: "When I was reading the script, I was like... no way. Then we were shooting it, and I was like... no way. Then I was watching the stunt footage they were filming in different parts of the world, and I was like... no, no way! [Laughs] Then I saw it all together and I'm like... oh my god this is happening."
For a franchise that's seen a cargo plane destroyed on the longest runway in the world, a tank torn through the streets of Rio and a supercar flying through three buildings, it's hard to imagine how the filmmakers went about beating themselves once again.
Rodriguez said: "It's kind of like, after this you just don't know how you're gonna top it. We've hit a mark here that... you're gonna need some serious creativity to beat this one."
In the trailer, we see Letty in a couple of gnarly stunts. She went on: "I'm really stoked, the girls get a lot more action time in this one. It's just really beautiful to see. The fight choreography was fun. I got a fighting sequence with Mia, and it's been a long time since we've been in a scene together getting our hands dirty, so I was really stoked about that."
Rodriguez had earlier stated the importance of bringing female voices into the series for F9. As for whether that's been reflected in the finished film, she said: "Absolutely."
Adding: "There was an openness, you know, on Justin Lin's part as a director, on the studio as a caretaker for the whole situation and from Vin, who's always supported strong women. There was this attention to detail, like... hey guys, let's show some love to the women of the franchise. They really did, they put their money where their mouth is. I thought it was a beautiful thing, I was super happy about it, super proud. I can drop mic now [laughs]."
Fast and Furious 9 hits cinemas on June 25, 2021 in the US and July 8 in the UK.
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Words by Cameron Frew
Featured Image Credit: The Fast SagaTopics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Fast and Furious