Series star Michelle Rodriguez confirms in an interview that the ninth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise will go into outer space.



In what feels like the final evolution of a franchise once simply about illegal street racing, Fast and Furious 9 (officially titled F9) will be going to space. The family has slowly but surely evolved over eight movies into a team of gravity-defying super-soldiers who save the world on a regular basis, and the fairly successful spin-off Hobbes and Shaw finally brought the series into all-out science fiction territory with the introduction of cybernetics and AI motorcycles. In the minds of many fans, only one possible frontier remained unbroken: the final frontier.


F9 has already dropped some big news ahead of its delayed 2021 release, including the return of beloved director Justin Lin, the return of formerly dead Han, and, apparently, big family guy Dominic Toretto has had a brother (to be played by John Cena) this entire time. As if that isn't enough, Ludacris recently sparked rumors that the ninth installment really is going to space.


In an interview on the SiriusXM program The Jess Cagle Show, series star Michelle Rodriguez (who plays the also formerly dead Lettie) fessed up when asked about the rumor. Read her full response below:



"Oh, no way. How did you guys find that out? See what happens? People start talking behind the scenes, man. When a movie doesn’t come out and forget about it, things get out. Nobody was supposed to know that…Oh, well, no, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not lucky enough to hit space, but we did get a female writer and showed a lot of love, I think, on this one. Thanks to…Justin Lin. We were able to, to find a little bit more attention and love for the girls in the movie. And so I’m really hopeful that that, that shows through in the final product."


At its beginnings, Fast and Furious was essentially Point Break but with cars. It wasn't until Fast Five and the introduction of Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs that the series really found its new voice as the defining gonzo action franchise of the generation...with cars. Though Vin Diesel's strictly mandated injection of the theme of family and Corona beer has remained, the plotlines–and more importantly, set pieces–of the franchise have become increasingly wild as the series has continued. With nowhere else to turn, the creative team seems to have sided with fans and decided it's high time they put some car thieves in a rocket ship.


It sounds like not the whole cast will be exiting Earth's atmosphere, at least for now. The smart money says Dom will be the lucky one, maybe his new brother Jakob, and probably Han, who may or may not now be a cybernetically enhanced assassin. Fans have been expecting the jump to space to happen, especially after the technological jumps of Furious 8 and Hobbs and Shaw. Seeing this rumor come to fruition may suggest other rumors (such as the potential good guy turn of Owen, the other Shaw) have a bit of truth to them as well. Hopefully, not too much spills before Fast and Furious 9 (F9) finds its way into theaters.