How Diversity Fuels Fast and the Furious
Fast and the Furious continues to make money. And Hollywood can’t seem to figure out why, even though to me, it’s very obvious.
F9 has crossed $500 million in the middle of a pandemic and inches closer to becoming the third-consecutive film to cross a billion globally, even though its clearly going to have a more uphill climb than the two previous installments. Even though the franchise peaked a decade ago, even though the supporting lead star passed away tragically, even though they are clearly running out of ideas, and even though they lost the very star that helped revitalize the series into new financial heights (The Rock is primarily why Fast and the Furious exists today, let’s not get anything twisted), the wheels keep spinning and the pathway towards being a Top 5 franchise in the history of cinema is all but guaranteed.
The films themselves aren’t groundbreaking, they don’t win awards, and outside of Fast Five, won’t necessarily leave their mark in cinema history. Money doesn’t always equal longevity in cinephile culture, just ask Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (made nearly $400 million way back in 1991, can you even find five people today who have seen it?). Fast and the Furious will come and go after the eleventh (or twelfth) installment with at least $10 billion under its belt. But how? It’s a mix of expected entertainment and casting variety not seen elsewhere which resonates extremely well with global audiences beyond the minorities in the United States moviewatching audience.
My theory is that since the Fast and the Furious franchise is easily the most culturally and racially diverse among all the blockbusters you see in global cinema, it allows these films to reach audiences that usually don’t see themselves displayed on screen. The top dog in movies, the MCU, has a good diverse cast, but the leads all tend to be White Americans, which isn’t fully a criticism but is worth pointing out. Let’s be honest, Marvel decided to give Anthony Mackie a TV show instead of his own Captain America film—secretly to see how audience reaction would pan out. Harry Potter of course had their casting restrictions, which didn’t allow them to expand beyond the United Kingdom for casting, and this problem has continued with the Fantastic Beasts series. Then of course we have the casting and racially-based controversial chaos of the DCEU and the Star Wars franchise which is a totally different article.
But look at the cast in Fast and the Furious: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel (marry me, please), Charlize Theron, the late Paul Walker, with your short stints from Gal Gadot, Jason Statham, Eva Mendez, Dwayne Johnson, and back-from-the-dead Sung Kang. So we have prominent Latinas throughout the years with strong roles and personalities, Brazilian American lead, Black Americans as the comic relief with their own action scenes, Black British lead as the intelligent hacker, Asian Americans with important roles, a recurring South African villain (I don’t care, I liked the dreadlocks), and of course we have Johnson whose racial makeup is Black Canadian and Samoan. Even the extras in the background have this diversity you won’t see in most productions. Its not just white people dominating the screen or reducing minorities to small roles.
I’ll even credit the terrible Tokyo Drift for having a diverse cast outside the very boring lead character. I’m not one to look at race to determine the quality of a film, but its undeniable that the diversity here is something you don’t see in Hollywood films even in 2021. Even Netflix, the main competitor to Hollywood, has its casting diversity issues, ranging from how certain races were personified in their very first series Orange is the New Black (The show was overall good, but their portrayal of Dominicans was yikes beyond yikes) to the casting issues of today in Selena and Avatar. Fast and the Furious has many issues, but casting is not one of them.
If another studio had the keys, we may not see all these diverse faces have their extended screentime and connection to their audience. Even the director’s chair has diversity: we’ve seen two Black directors, a Taiwanese director, and even an Australian who specializes in horror direct at least one Fast and the Furious film. Companies like Disney and Netflix have improved, but where they are making strides and still learning, Vin Diesel and his production team have already perfected.
The consistency of the themes and the storylines is what primarily supports the cast above all else. The concept about family above all is heartfelt, even if it can get quite cheesy at times. Action doesn’t do anything if you aren’t rooting for the characters, it would otherwise become empty noise. The post-Verbinski Pirates of the Caribbean movies had plenty of action, but since the characters stopped being compelling, our connection to the movie doesn’t happen, and therefore the investment is lost. The original Pirates trilogy was acclaimed and made great money because we loved Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann, and Will Turner—these characters remain staples of pop culture. Disney learned this the hard way which is why they tried bringing them back in the fifth chapter (which was yikes). There is a strategy behind ending every Fast and the Furious film with a family gathering.
No matter how ridiculous Fast and the Furious becomes, if a main character dies the impact is felt. If a main character is in danger, the impact is felt. The best decision made by Vin Diesel and the screenwriters is to not replace and to not kill off Paul Walker’s character, because the audience has already embraced the persona and have developed this relationship with the fictional character. This respect has been rewarded with a consistent audience base that will accept just about anything, from cars battling submarines to souped-up cars in space to a giant chase sequence involving powerful magnets tossing cars around like they are paper bags in a tornado.
Side-Note: Yea, F9 was quite ridiculous, even if it had its entertaining moments (P.S. the dramatic storyline in this film in particular would have been great if they used it in the third or fourth installment).
Hollywood has not produced a single other blockbuster franchise that has produced the consistent diversity you see in Fast and the Furious, and the amount of actual remaining blockbuster franchises have been dwindling rapidly. Fast and the Furious stand tall in a competition with few players, and thus gets to collect all the rewards for maintaining its strengths, whether their movies are good (Fast Five, Fast 6), mediocre (Fast and Furious, Furious 7), or terrible (Fate of the Furious, Tokyo Drift). By the time Hollywood finally firmly invests in truly diversifying its product, Fast and the Furious will have firmly planted its position in box office Mount Rushmore.
It really is all about the family, in this case about a great cast with great chemistry that does a better job representing the world we see today in terms of racial variety than almost anything else out there.