The Fast & Furious franchise has a surprising legacy of superheroes being in their films, whether that’s Vin Diesel as Groot, or the more recent addition of John “Peacemaker” Cena that came with last year’s F9. (This is to say nothing of the real superhero in the cast, which is Tyrese Gibson as a cop in Morbius.) Next year’s Fast 10 is bringing Aquaman into the fold, and now it’s been announced that the franchise is gaining another superhero actor in the form of Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson.
Diesel broke the news himself on Saturday night, posting a selfie of him and Larson smiling together. In welcoming her to “The Family,” he also teases the importance of her character to “the mythology” of the Fast universe, and she’ll add “something you might not have expected, but yearned for.” It’s worth noting that back in February, Larson herself said that she was a fan of the franchise and expressed that she would really like to be in the films someday. “I’m obsessed, I love them,” she told Uproxx. Good on her for getting to achieve her dreams.
The way that Diesel’s caption reads, it’s possible that Larson may be playing someone connected to characters from the previous films — which isn’t really saying anything, admittedly, given that this series loves to pull from its own history. But it may also be a wholly new character meant to serve a new function in adding some new blood to the franchise. Back in 2019, Diesel said that a female-led spinoff was in the works, and since F9 tried to address the franchise’s shortcomings in this regard — actors Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster reportedly wanted to make sure their characters Letty and Mia shared on-screen time together — it feels like the right time to try and get that spinoff off the ground. Since Fast 11 is meant to end the mainline films, it would make sense for the penultimate film to set the stage for a new lead once Dom and his crew have put their cars in park for good. That, or maybe Larson’s just playing Captain Marvel again, for the sole purpose of getting Team Toretto even further into space.
Fast & Furious 10 arrives in theatres on May 19, 2023.