'Fast And Furious: Spy Racers' Trailer: It's Basically 'James Bond Jr.' For A New Generation

There's a new Toretto in town in Fast & Furious: Spy Racers, the new Netflix animated series from DreamWorks and Universal. Tyler Posey from Teen Wolf is providing the voice for Tony Toretto, the younger cousin of Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto from the live-action Fast movies. And based on this newly-released trailer, this show essentially feels like a slightly tweaked version of James Bond Jr., the 1990s animated series that followed the kid-friendly exploits of 007's nephew. (Please don't ask me why that character was named "Junior" if he's Bond's nephew, we don't have time for that right now.)

What is this organization that recruits teen street racers as operatives? This nefarious "SHIFT3R" group is too much for adults to take down on their own, eh? Maybe it'll be revealed that a member of that organization's family is somehow the one pulling the strings behind the curtain in Hobbs and Shaw. (That kind of thing happened occasionally on James Bond Jr. when Goldfinger's daughter would drop by for a couple episodes.)

This series is very obviously meant for a younger audience so I probably won't be tuning in to check it out, but the animation looks pretty slick, the visual language is a close match to what we see in the live-action films (at least the way this trailer is cut), and the over-the-top spy gadgets cross a line that's fun for kids but would strain what little credulity the live-action movies have left if they showed up in that context. (And I say that as a big fan of the franchise.)

For me, the existence of Tony Toretto raises more questions than it answers. Clearly Tony knows about Dom, because he worships him, but does Dom know about this kid? What's their relationship like? Is Dom a significant part of his life? If so, Dom's choices in the movies become even more reckless, knowing that any one of his cliff-jumping, hood-leaping antics could have left this kid without a key member of his family. And why hasn't Tony been at those Toretto family barbecues? The world may never know.

Here's the official description:

There's a new Toretto in town and he's ready to ride! Tony Toretto and his crew of Spy Racers live up to the Fast family legacy with more high octane racing action and incredible covert operations!

You can learn more about the voice cast of this series here. Fast & Furious: Spy Racers arrives on Netflix on December 26, 2019.