Fast X Supercharges A Strategy The Franchise Has Used Before

Fewer franchises work as hard as "Fast & Furious" when it comes to crafting high-speed soap opera nonsense. Each new entry begs the question: how the hell are they going to top the insanity of what came before? You'll remember that "F9" saw Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) driving a rocket-fueled Pontiac Fiero into a satellite while in the reaches of outer space. Everyone made jokes, but this team just went ahead and did it (and consulted with NASA rocket scientists to work out the logistics). Naturally, that leaves so much room for the highly-anticipated "Fast X" to take this journey to the next level.

I think it's safe to say that they have, going off of the ludicrous new "Fast X" trailer. For the past few entries, "Fast & Furious" made their trailer releases an entire event. On top of wanting to put on a show for the fans that have stuck around for the past two decades, they know that once it drops online, the internet chatter will be all about how wild it looks.

Not only does Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) drive backwards out of a cargo plane onto two cars, he also brings down two choppers with his new Charger. This is the kind of absurdity you come to expect from a "Fast & Furious" movie. But beneath the physics-defying stunts, perhaps the craziest thing in this trailer is the reveal of Jason Momoa's villain origin story.

The rogues' gallery of enemies in the "Fast & Furious" franchise range from low level baddies to absolute forces of nature. We knew that Momoa's Dante was going to be the next big bad. However, we didn't know why he would be going after Dom. 

In a shocking turn of events, the "Fast X" trailer reveals that Dante is the son of Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), the Brazilian drug lord and politician from "Fast Five." In a truly spectacular retcon, we learn that Dante watched the entire heist unfold before his own eyes. When Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom took Reyes' vault, Dante was literally right behind them the whole time. Later on in the trailer, we see that he was also in one of the cars that gets catapulted into the sea in the final bridge confrontation. In addition to witnessing his father's death, he also watched a man, who was once responsible for lifting VCR/DVD combo players, nab his $100 million inheritance. It's no wonder he's pissed.

Dante's so bothered, in fact, that it took him over 12 years to exact his elaborate revenge scheme. He's very lucky that none of the other villains from the four interim entries got to Dom before he did. You may be thinking, well, where was he in "Fast Five?" The answer lies in a formula that the "Fast & Furious" movies have become really good at using.

In "The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift," we see Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang) killed during a chase. We're left to assume that the explosion is caused by someone from the Yakuza, given that Han protects Sean (Lucas Black) from the boss' hot-headed son Takashi (Brian Tee). But it's left so open-ended that it could have been anyone. Making the next three films prequels allowed Justin Lin to bring the fan-favorite character back to join the Fast family on their adventures. But in the mid-credits scene of "Fast & Furious 6," we learn that the Mercedes that took him out belonged to Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the brother of Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), who took out Dom's buddy as an act of retaliation. Naturally, that leads into the primary conflict of "Furious 7," as Deckard goes on his own revenge spree for what they did to his baby brother.

In "F9" we learn that, while Deckard did slam into Han's car, he wasn't the actual cause of his death. As it turns out, Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) was at the scene too. I hope you're keeping track of this, folks. He wanted Han to come work for him, so he orchestrated the snack-munching driver's death to look real. It turns out that Han wasn't even in the car this entire time.

In the world of "Fast & Furious," anything can happen. Villains can become family. Cars can swing like "Spider-Man." If they can dream it, they can do it, no matter how ridiculous it is. Just look at Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who supposedly died in the fourth film before being confirmed as alive in the fifth.

Leading up to the super-sized trailer, promos for "Fast X" kept emphazising the importance of legacy. After all, each film finds something from the past coming back to haunt these characters in unexpected ways. I already thought the Shaw dynasty was a wild move, yet it seems like we've barely scratched the surface. These movies poke fun at themselves wherever they can, but the fun derives from how seriously these characters take themselves. "Fast & Furious" has transformed from a street racing crime saga to a roided-out soap opera with twists and turns that you have to see to believe.

The big bad of "F9" was Dom's disgraced little brother Jakob (John Cena), who was exiled from Los Angeles after losing a race. Here, the villain wears a snakeskin jacket, says "boom" when he throws magnetic bombs, murders people with his abs in the breeze, and then licks the knife afterwards like an absolute maniac. You better believe I'm onboard. Whatever they're doing with Momoa in "Fast X" is my kind of nonsense.

"Fast X" is set to hit theaters on May 19, 2023.