SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers are ahead for Fast X, which is now playing in theaters.
You believe in ghosts? Agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) asks at the end of 2011s Fast Five. Shes just presented agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) with a surveillance photo of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who was believed dead after a horrific crash in the fourth film, 2009s Fast Furious.
With one mid-credits coda, the Fast franchise established that if you dont see a body, no one is really dead.
(In fact, Rodriguez recently revealed that she didnt know about the third-act twist until she saw Fast Five in theaters. Im in Paris. Im like, Oh, hell no,' she said in Feb. at the Fast X trailer launch event, explaining that she called producer and star Vin Diesel right away. I find out by going to the movies, Vin? she asked him.)
Fast X, directed by Louis Leterrier, already promised to be the biggest installment yet with a cast that boasts longtime Fast Family members Diesel, Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Cena, Chris Ludacris Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Scott Eastwood and Nathalie Emmanuel, as well as Jason Statham, Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron as the super villain Cipher.
Newcomers to the action-packed arena include Alan Ritchson (as Aimes, the new no-nonsense head of the Agency, who thinks the family is just a cult with cars), Brie Larson (Tess, the headstrong daughter of Kurt Russells Mr. Nobody), Rita Moreno (who plays Doms grandmother, Abuelita Toretto) and Daniela Melchior (Isabel, a street racer with her own family ties). Jason Momoa serves as the movies primary villain, Dante, who exacts revenge on Dom and his family throughout the two-and-a-half-hour runtime.
So now that weve gone over the background, who does Fast X resurrect?
[This is your last spoiler warning]
Dom (Vin Diesel) and Isabel (Daniela Melchior) in Fast X, directed by Louis Leterrier. Peter Mountain / Universal Pictu Get ready Fast Fam, because Fast X features not one, but two major returns, with credit scene appearances by Dwayne Johnsons Hobbs and Gal Gadots Gisele.
After an action-packed chase scene, in which Dom escapes Dantes latest trap (two remote-controlled big rigs that threaten to crush him and his son, Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry) using NOs to drive/fly his car down the side of a dam and into the water below, the villain arms a series of bombs and the film cuts to black.
Then, Letty and Cipher appear, trekking through ice and snow after breaking out of the Agencys maximum security prison in Antarctica. They cross a ridge and, suddenly, a large submarine breaks through the surface. Who should emerge from the hatch, coming to their rescue? Gisele.
Still think my plan sucks, Cipher cracks, as Letty looks on bemused.
Before she was Wonder Woman, Gadot made her big screen debut in the fourth Fast Furious, starring as Gisele, an intelligence operative and weapons specialist who became an integral member of Doms family of racers. When the character seemingly died in 2013s Fast Furious 6 falling into the abyss as the crew tried to take down an airplane it seemed that her time in the high-octane franchise had come to an end.
Gisele (Gal Gadot) and Han (Sung Kang) in Fast Five, directed by Justin Lin. Universal/Everett Collection Most Fast fans will be quick to point out the fact that Giseles love interest, Han (Kang), was revealed to have survived his brush with death in the last installment, 2021s F9: The Fast Saga. So, with this third resurrection, the franchise has officially started a trend.
It also begs the question whether Han knew Gisele was alive the whole time? Only time and the next movie will tell.
Also, with Letty and Cipher punching their way to a truce in Fast X, could Giseles reappearance bring things one-step closer to the female-focused film fans have long-desired? Maybe.
But the bigger surprise is the return of Johnson, after he publicly declined Diesels request to rejoin the action franchise in a December 2021 interview with CNN following the two action stars very public feud.
The world awaits the finale of Fast 10, Diesel wrote on Instagram in November 2021. I told you years ago that I was going to fulfill my promise to Pablo [the late Paul Walker]. I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10!
Dom (Vin Diesel) and Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in Fast Five. Universal/Everett Collection In the interview, Johnson explained that hed already spoken with Diesel privately. I was firm yet cordial with my words and said that I would always be supportive of the cast and always root for the franchise to be successful, but that there was no chance I would return, he said while wishing the Fast Furious family the best of luck and success in the next chapter.
A chapter that now apparently includes Johnson, after all.
Fast Xs mid-credits scene follows a tactical team,searching a movie palace for something (or someone), as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Happy Trails plays in the background. One officer, covered head to toe in black with a face mask and goggles concealing their identity, reaches for a ringing cell phone. The screen reads No Caller ID, but the voice on the other end is unmistakably Dante.
Youve done some dastardly dirty deeds, Sheriff. Dom drove the car, but you pulled the trigger, Dante says while footage from Fast Five shows Hobbs shoot and kill Dantes father, Hernan Reyes, that films villain. Now Im going to make you suffer, Dante threatens. The devil is coming for you, lawman.
The camera pushes in tighter on Johnsons face, growing angrier by the minute, as he prepares a comeback. Well, I aint hard to find, you sumbitch! Johnson growls.
Using Fast Five to bring Hobbs back into the fold makes complete sense, given the movie marked Johnsons franchise debut. In the film, his character Hobbs begins as an antagonist to Doms crew, trying to bring them to justice after a job gone wrong, but, as the plot progresses, he turns to our heroes side. Then, Johnson rode with the family in 2013s Fast Furious 6, as well as 2015s Furious 7, but bowed out of the mainline series following 2017s The Fate of the Furious and teamed up with Statham to headline the 2019 spin-off, Fast Furious Presents: Hobbs Shaw.
Thus, the Fast X mid-credits scene not only sets up Hobbs reintegration into the main storyline, but also opens a plethora of possibilities about what road the upcoming 11th installment might take.
The biggest question, though, is when will Dom and Hobbs reunite onscreen? Or will they spend most of the next movie traveling down parallel paths before colliding at the end? Whos to say.
(And, if, somehow, these returns turn out to be a one-off much like Mendes reappearance at least fans can still look forward to Johnson and Gadot starring alongside Ryan Reynolds in two more Red Notice movies for Netflix.)
The next Fast installment will again be helmed by Letterier, with Christina Hodson and Oren Uziel writing the script. On the red carpet at the premiere in Rome last week, Diesel teased the possibility of a 12th movie, turning Fast X into a final trilogy of films that send the Torettos speeding off into the sunset.
Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) and Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in Fast Furious Presents: Hobbs Shaw, directed by David Leitch. Photo Credit: Daniel Smith/Unive