'Star Trek Beyond' Director Justin Lin Hints at a 'Fast and the Furious' Comeback

Justin Lin and Vin Diesel on the set of ‘Fast Five’ (Universal Pictures)

This July, the Starship Enterprise will get an adrenalized update when Star Trek Beyond — the third entry in this reboot cycle — soars into theaters. It comes courtesy of Justin Lin, the director who rose from indie fame to transform the Fast and the Furious films into Hollywood’s most diverse – and, some might say, dominant – international franchise. And in a new interview with Wired, both he and one of his favorite leading men suggest that he might not be done with that car-racing series just yet.

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Speaking to Logan Hill for Wired (in a glowing profile topped by an unflattering headline: “Meet Justin Lin, the Most Important Blockbuster Director You’ve Never Heard Of”), the 44-year-old filmmaker reflects on his tough upbringing growing up as a poor Asian-American in California, and how his 2002 breakthrough Better Luck Tomorrow afforded him an opportunity to reinvent the Fast and the Furious with its third entry, 2006’s Vin Diesel-less Tokyo Drift. That film so impressed Diesel that he agreed to do a cameo. And when it turned a profit — thanks to global receipts that outpaced its domestic tally — Lin had the headliner back on board and both were keen to recreate its story as one about inclusion. As Diesel says of the shift from the earlier Fast and the Furious movies: “It was separate families: the Mexican crew, the homeboy crew…You didn’t see a multicultural family. The idea that Dom’s brothers are Han and Brian and Roman and Santos — that’s a pretty intense idea.”

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After turning the franchise into a diverse and insanely lucrative Universal property with Fast & Furious, Fast 5 and Fast & Furious 6, Lin opted to leave it in the hands of James Wan for 2015’s Furious 7. Nonetheless, Diesel is determined to get Lin to helm future installments. “I’m going to bring him back…Whenever we had a day off—even on Thanksgiving, his favorite holiday— it was Justin and me working on how far we could take it. Success comes from 10 years of that mentality.”

Lin himself is coy, but also implies that a reunion could eventually come to fruition, telling Wired, “Vin says you finish what you started, and he’s very persuasive.” (Straight Outta Compton’s F. Gary Gray is directing the currently-in-production Fast 8, which is set to hit theaters on April 14, 2017.)

In the wide-ranging profile, Lin also expounds on the reasons he hopped aboard Star Trek Beyond, as well as his disappointment over some former franchise members — notably, original Sulu himself, George Takei — taking swipes at the upcoming sci-fi saga’s action-oriented first trailer (“He was a huge part of my life, so for him to swing a sucker punch, that hurt”). And while he doesn’t reveal anything concrete about his plans for a planned Space Jam sequel starring LeBron James, Hill’s article makes clear that the project remains high on Lin’s list of priorities.

Check out the entire piece here. Star Trek Beyond beams into multiplexes on July 22.

Watch the ‘Star Trek Beyond’ trailer: