Vin Diesel, in a surprise Facebook livestream, announced on Wednesday afternoon that director Justin Lin would be returning for the next two installments of the “Fast & Furious” series.
Lin, who Diesel referred to as a “forefather of ‘Fast,'” an “architect” of the series’ mythology, and “the one responsible for resurrecting this beautiful saga,” has previously directed four of the eight current entries. Diesel also revealed that Jordana Brewster is returning for the ninth “Fast” film. Brewster’s last appearance in the series was in “Furious 7” when her character Mia Toretto retired from the family business to start a family with the late Paul Walker’s character.
While he didn’t officially say that Lin would be serving as director in the next two installments, as he introduced Lin, Diesel said, “You wanted [movies] nine and 10 to be incredible. We’ve heard your concerns about the saga and where it needs to arrive in its final chapters.”
Universal Pictures, the studio behind the “Fast & Furious” franchise, had no comment on the news.
The announcement comes after news broke that a spinoff film featuring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham’s characters is scheduled to be released in 2019 and that “Fast and Furious 9” would be delayed a year from 2019 to 2020. “Like any vehicle that has run around the globe 8 times, the franchise is in need of maintenance,” Diesel wrote in a post on Instagram. “My good friend and the godfather of Universal, Ron Meyer has granted me the time to do just that. We have some very exciting news to share soon.”
Watch Diesel’s Facebook livestream below:
