How Fast & Furious 9 Kept Han’s Return A Secret

Sung Kang reveals how Han’s return in Fast & Furious 9 was kept a secret. The Fast Saga is entering its final trilogy with the upcoming Justin Lin-directed installment. While there are many things to be excited about it, including the introduction of Dom’s brother, Jakob, arguably the most buzz-worthy plotline is the resurrection of Han Lue.

Introduced in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift as the newly-wealthy mentor of Sean Boswell, it was eventually revealed that he is connected to Dom and his crew. Due to the Fast & Furious movies’ convoluted timeline, Han’s story was subsequently fleshed out in Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6 with his fatal car crash technically taking place after the events of this movies. By Furious 7,  the franchise revealed that he was killed in Tokyo by Deckard Shaw, who was plotting revenge against the “la familia” for what happened to his brother, Owen — the team’s one-time adversary.

Given what’s known about the character’s fate in The Fast Saga, his return in F9 has been such a favorite topic of conversation among fans. There weren’t any persistent rumblings suggesting that he’s starring in the film. According to Kang, in an interview with Digital Spy, it’s all thanks to Lin and Universal for making sure that the surprise wasn’t spoiled, adding that even in cast birthday celebrations, he wasn’t invited to ensure that there was no leak. As for him, he took it seriously, not even telling his wife about Han’s return.

“Justin [Lin] and Universal, everybody was really on top of hiding me on set. There’s a lot of cast photos early on. If you look at the Fast 9 photos from set, there’s all these birthday parties and stuff, I’m never invited.

I would see the birthday cakes from afar, but it’s part of the fun. It’s really cool to be part of that kind of narrative.”

Throughout the filming of F9, the cast and crew from the film shared snaps of their time working on the project, and if the people involved weren’t careful, they could’ve easily let the aforementioned information slip. Despite the great lengths that Lin and Universal went through to make sure that there were no inadvertent spoilers getting out, they opted to reveal that the character is indeed alive early on in the movie’s marketing process. This was actually a clever way to handle the situation. Instead of keeping the secret until the project released in theaters, further risking any leak, confirming that Han is back allows the public conversation to move forward from whether or not he’s in the installment to how he’s in it. Regardless, viewers’ interests are piqued which will more likely make them want to check out the blockbuster.

Han’s resurrection is one of, if not the biggest mystery going into Fast & Furious 9. Granted that there’s also curiosity around Jakob and his complicated relationship with Dom, long-time fans of The Fast Saga are understandably more invested in someone they’ve known for long. Whether or not the movie will fully answer this question is unknown considering that Lin is confirmed to helm the final two movies in the franchise. It’s also important that justice for what happened to the character is delivered, as demanded by the Justice For Han movement.

Source: Digital Spy

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