New 'Fast and Furious' Movie's Release Date Revealed
The last Fast and Furious movie ended on a massive cliffhanger, with Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto outrunning an explosion as he drives a car down the near-vertical side of a dam before the whole thing blows up as he looks on. That was back in 2023, and there hasn't been any sign of when the story would continue… until now. The next Fast and Furious movie official has a release date, a little over two years from now.
Universal, the studio behind the Fast franchise, announced that the eleventh movie in the series, titled Fast Forever, will come out on March 17, 2028. In an Instagram post on Friday, Diesel, who is a producer on the films in addition to the lead actor, confirmed the date and shared his thoughts.
"No one said the road would be easy… but it’s ours," Diesel said, perhaps alluding to the delay in getting this next Fast movie up and running after 2023's Fast X underperformed at the box office. "One that has defined us and become our legacy… And a legacy… lasts Forever. March 17th 2028! FAST FOREVER."
Diesel's Instagram post was accompanied by a picture of an older Fast movie of Dom and Brian O'Conner, the co-lead character of the series until actor Paul Walker's death ahead of the release of Furious 7.
One a Box Office Juggernaut, the Fast Franchise Has Been on a Rocky Road
You'd think, after 2023's Fast X ended on such a cliffhanger, that we would've known when the next movie would be coming out well before now—or perhaps that the movie would already be in theaters. That's not the case, in part because these films aren't as big of a hit as they once were. In 2015, Furious 7 made $1.5 billion internationally, but Fast 9 made $726 million and Fast X made $704 million — and given that the movie was reportedly much more expensive to make than the previous film was, it was barely profitable for the studio. The inflating costs of these movies combined with the relatively underwhelming box office hauls likely led to the delay in getting the eleventh film going.
Additionally, the Fast movies have been plagued with behind-the-scenes drama as of late. Justin Lin, the director behind some of the most beloved Fast films, quit Fast X, reportedly because he was tired of dealing with changes to the script, studio notes, and Diesel. He's not the only one to have issues with the actor behind Dom; Dwayne Johnson, who played agent Luke Hobbs in Fast Five and appeared in subsequent Fast movies and the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off, has publicly feuded with Diesel. They appear to have buried the hatchet somewhat—Fast X's post-credit scene teased Johnson's return to the flagship franchise.
Still, Fast remains one of the highest-earning franchises in film history, and it's no surprise that, eventually, someone wanted to take the gamble on putting together another installment.