The first 'F9' trailer features fast cars, furious action and a major resurrection

Ethan Alter
·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
Updated ·4 min read

Since driving onscreen in 2001’s franchise-launching The Fast and the Furious, Dominic Toretto has evolved from a street racer into a full-fledged superhero, complete with his own crew of speed demon avengers. With the ninth installment, due in theaters on May 22, Vin Diesel’s alter ego is heading into new territory: fatherhood. The first full trailer for Fast & Furious 9 arrived online today and shows a retired Dom and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) living in domestic bliss with their son named — appropriately enough — Brian, after their ride-or-die friend played by the late Paul Walker. “Now that I’m a father, I can’t live my life a quarter mile at a time anymore,” Dom says, suggesting his days behind the wheel are in the rearview. (Watch the trailer above.)

The first poster for 'Fast & Furious 9' promises an action-packed ninth installment in the 'Fast' saga (Photo: Universal)
The first poster for F9 promises an action-packed ninth installment in the Fast saga. (Photo: Universal)

Naturally, it isn’t long before he and Letty are back in the driver’s seat as they face a major threat from Dom’s past: his younger brother, Jacob, played by John Cena. Described as a “master thief, assassin and high performance driver,” Jacob has been recruited by Charlize Theron’s cyberterrorist, Cipher, to go head-to-head with his sibling. “Your whole life you pushed yourself to be faster than Dom, smarter than Dom and stronger than Dom,” Cipher says. “But could you kill him? Because I’m ready if you are.”

It’s doubtful that Jacob will succeed in killing Dom, but he’s clearly going to put his brother to the test. And returning director Justin Lin is taking their battle worldwide, with next-level action sequences set in all kinds of exotic locales involving some crazy new toys, from magnetic planes to suspension wires.

Even with the Dom and Jacob sibling rivalry driving the action, F9 is also going to showcase the franchise’s female characters — including Letty, Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) — in a big way. That squares with longstanding rumors that Universal is planning a women-centric spinoff after last summer’s successful Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

But F9 saves the biggest and best news for last: Fan-favorite Han (Sung Kang) who died back in the Dom-less third installment Tokyo Drift — and again at the end of Fast & Furious 6 — is alive and well. “It’s emotional,” Kang told The Los Angeles Times in an exclusive interview before the trailer dropped. “It feels like I’m going back to a family reunion.” It’ll also satiate those who have been demanding #JusticeForHan for several years now. “At first it was easy to dismiss,” Kang said of the character’s posthumous popularity. “I wondered, does the audience really have a voice?” They absolutely do ... and they’re using it to welcome Han back on Twitter.

Now that Han’s back in the fold, it’s time to focus on our next Fast family reunion: Bow Wow and Devon Aoki.

F9 speeds into theaters on May 22.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: