F9: The Fast Sagais reuniting the Tokyo Drift crew and officially making them part of the core Fast and Furious family. Made as the third film in the franchise but set between Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7, Tokyo Drift is one of the odder films in the entire series. Now it looks like Fast and Furious 9 is bringing the drifters back into the spotlight by combining their stories with that of Dom’s crew.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift focuses on Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), who is sent to live with his father in Tokyo after getting into some legal trouble in the United States. There he meets up with drift master Han (Sung Kang) and a crew that includes Twinkie (Bow Wow), Earl Hu (Jason Tobin), and Neela (Nathalie Kelley). Han dies late in the film – a death later retconned to have been caused by Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw – but he’s being resurrected in F9. And according to trailer footage, most of the rest of the Tokyo Drift crew is being brought back as well.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

In the second F9 trailer, Sean, Twinkie, and Earl are all shown at one of the Torettos’ famous backyard barbecues, toasting each other with Coronas. It’s nice to see the Tokyo squad finally be brought into the core Fast family, though it would have been good to see Neela return as well. From what else has been shown, it doesn’t look like Sean and the gang will have a huge role in the film, but they will be involved in the creation of the new rocket car. It is a bit strange to see the characters looking so much older when canonically they shouldn’t have aged that much, but that’s an easy plot hole to look over in a franchise filled with ludicrous stories.

For fans of Tokyo Drift, its exciting to know that Han and Sean will get a proper reunion in F9. The film is one of the more divisive entries in the Fast and Furious franchise, with some having decried it as the weakest in the series, and others holding it up as a personal favorite. Regardless of anyone’s personal thoughts on the film, it was undeniably a major landmark for the franchise, introducing Han and director Justin Lin and making some big improvements to the cinematography of the racing scenes.

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While Tokyo Drift isn’t all that important to the overall Fast and Furious story, it still deserves to share the limelight. Bringing back so many original cast members from the film in F9 is a great way to do that. It should be interesting to see what makes the gang cross the Pacific to join up with Dom and his crew, as Han’s return is almost certainly involved. Perhaps the drifters are with Han when the Fast family finds him in Tokyo. Who knows, maybe Fast and Furious 9 can even set up the Tokyo Drift 2 that some fans have been waiting on for years.

Key Release Dates
  • F9/Fast & Furious 9 (2021)Release date: Jun 25, 2021
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Rick Stevenson
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Rick Stevenson is a writer, editor and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. He’s written on TV, film and games for over six years, in addition to assorted stints in bookselling, carpentry, and TV production. Rick studied writing at the College of William & Mary and Oxford University, and can report with some authority that they are both old. He lives and dies for Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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