Pour Out A Corona For Leon, The 'Lost' Fast And Furious Family Member

The Fast Saga is one of the unlikeliest franchises in modern Hollywood – one that originated with a movie that didn't really hint at any larger world to be explored in sequels, much less important characters beyond its protagonists. Nevertheless, the "Fast & Furious" property has continued to expand its universe with each new entry, along the way adding several new players to its recurring cast and shattering the laws of physics into who-knows-how-many pieces. 

While the original "Fast and the Furious" had fellowship and family as big themes, it wouldn't be until a few movies later that the concept of family would really come to define the franchise, even more so than the (super-fast) cars. As it did, Dominic Toretto's humble crew (composed primarily of small-time robbers and gearheads) grew to include everyone from super hackers to international spies, even as the members of Dom's original team fell by the wayside — save for Letty, Mia, and, on one occasion, Vince.

But what about the rest of Dom's OG "Fast" Fam? Presumably, they were rather important to him, seeing as they spent years working together. Jesse, of course, didn't make it out of "Fast and the Furious" alive, whereas Vince would disappear before returning (and dying) in "Fast Five." However, there's another member of the team who, as far as we know, is still alive and well, but has never really come back into the fold — Leon. 

Here's to you, Leon, the forgotten member of the fambly.

We don't really know a lot about Leon, which is kind of the issue. In "The Fast and the Furious," Leon is mostly there to serve as the lookout during street races while serving as yet another member of Dom's truck highjacking crew.

Nine movies later, it's rather remarkable to see how much Dom's crew has changed over the years. Before they all became immortal superheroes and experts in martial arts, driving, and hacking, the series' heroes were a group of disenfranchised car enthusiasts whose circumstances led to them becoming law-breakers. In Jesse's case, he was a bonafide genius whose ADD gave him problems at school and he dropped out, before eventually turning to crime and designing modifications for Dom and the crew's cars.

While Jesse had a sad story which helped push Brian towards feeling sympathy for Dom's situation and Vince was Dom's best friend since childhood, Leon was just ... there. He didn't really add anything to the team and by the time Dom returned in "Fast & Furious," he had a brand new crew, including Han, Leo, and Santos (who we later learn Dom knew years prior to the first film, having met them in prison). By then, though, there was no room for Leon, and Dom seemingly just moved on, which is a rather serious thing for him to do, given how much he claims to care about family.

Granted that "Fast & Furious" loves to reference earlier movies and bring back characters we haven't seen in ages, who better to help Dom in his hour of need going into the franchise's final (?) film than Leon himself? In the meantime, you can catch Dom and his current fambly back in action when "Fast X" hits theaters on May 19, 2023.