'Fast and Furious 10' could be a two-part movie teases Vin Diesel

Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel in <i>Fast & Furious 8</i>. (Universal Pictures)
Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel in Fast & Furious 8. (Universal Pictures)

As the hype machine for Fast & Furious 9 revs up into top gear, Vin Diesel has already begun teasing his plans for Fast 10, which he let slip might be released in two parts.

Talking to Total Film for its February 2020 Fast & Furious 9 cover feature, Diesel says he started planning the tenth film in the main series – scheduled for release April 2021 – before filming began on the ninth.

“The universe is so robust and so rich with talent and rich with story that, on one level, it’s totally feasible to have spinoffs, and I think that’s something that is inevitable,” the 52-year-old action star said. “Universal [Pictures] deserves it because of how much they’ve invested in this little saga, and it’d be good to give back to Universal.

Read more: Han returns in Fast 9

“And for the fans, should Fast 10 parts one and two be the conclusion, it would be nice for this world to continue for generations to come.”

When Fast & Furious 8 was first announced back in 2016, it was teased as “the first instalment of a trilogy that will bring the series to a conclusion after 10 films”, but now it sounds like F&F10 may be released as 10 and 10: Part 2. Or should that be 10+1? Or 10.5? Or 11?

(from left) Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Dom (Vin Diesel) in F9, directed by Justin Lin.
(from left) Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Dom (Vin Diesel) in F9, directed by Justin Lin.

This wouldn’t be the first time the concluding chapter in a big movie series was split into two for moneymaking storytelling purposes.

Should Fast 10 be bisected, it would follow the lead of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Twilight: Breaking Dawn and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, all of which gave their studios two lucrative bites of the film finale apple. The difference being that those releases were based on literary properties, whereas the Fast & Furious films have no set text to work from.

A better comparison would be the Mission: Impossible series which is currently in pre-production on the untitled seventh and eighth instalments, due to be filmed back-to-back by director Christopher McQuarrie and released in 2021 and 2022.

The Fast franchise has proved it can withstand spin-offs though, with 2019’s Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw proving to be a commercial smash hit for Universal Pictures. An animated spin-off Fast & Furious Spy Racers also recently launched on Netflix, and a female-focussed Fast spin-off is also in development from writers Nicole Perlman, Lindsey Beer, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.

Fast & Furious 9 comes to UK cinemas on 22 May. Watch the first trailer below.