Justin Lin became a Fast & Furious fixture after “Tokyo Drift,” as he returned to direct 2009’s “Fast & Furious,” 2011’s “Fast Five,” 2013’s “Fast & Furious 6,” and 2021’s “F9.” “Justin Lin’s iterations, as they got crazier and bigger and crazier and bigger, they became something else, but something else kind of fun,” Christopher Nolan said on “Happy Sad Confused.”
The filmmaker has no issues with the Fast & Furious movies getting bigger with each entry because that’s what directors want when making sequels. “Everyone always complains that sequels get bigger, but we are the people making sequels get bigger,” Nolan said. “We do want them bigger. You don’t want them smaller. It’s the ‘Alien 3’ lesson … You can do it, but it’s not gonna make anybody happy even though, personally, I love that film.”
The Fast & Furious franchise hit a speed bump in April 2022, when Lin exited “Fast X” less than a week after production started. Luckily, the director was quickly replaced with Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran Louis Leterrier. “The Incredible Hulk” filmmaker must have impressed the producers since “Fast and Furious 11” secured Leterrier to return as director a few weeks before the release of “Fast X” in May 2023.
