Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | March 23, 2026
The Fast & Furious movies becoming such a blockbuster franchise still feels very surprising. It's not just because of the film series' humble beginnings about stealing combination VHS/DVD players, but because of how effortlessly they pivoted to the entries basically being about super spies. The stakes gain world-ending potential, and the characters, stars, and movie-going public barely batted an eye. But their success doesn't make them invincible.
Fast X, the most recent film in the series, ended on a cliffhanger. That may seem par for the course in a world where the influence of the MCU machine holds strong, but we're almost three years removed from that uncertain ending, and a sequel has still not arrived. Could it be because the last film barely doubled its insane budget upon release (it reportedly cost almost $400 million) and didn't even crack the billion mark? Perhaps franchise star and shepherd, Vin Diesel, couldn't shake those assault allegations so easily? Whatever the case, a new film isn't due until 2028, a full five years after the last, but Vin is still gassing folks up.
He recently took to Instagram to reveal a super candid, totally unplanned photo of him and the newest writer brought into the Fast family, Michael Lesslie. In the post, Vin waxes poetic about the franchise that he started, walked away from, then restarted. He notes its legacy and the importance of getting the next one right. I'd say that it feels melodramatic, but this is Vin Diesel; melodrama is expected. What I was not expecting was for him to compare wanting to get this movie right to his mother's love of his Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots movie, which is definitely gonna happen.
Vin was one of the many Hollywood types who got swept up in Mattel's naive attempt to capitalize on Barbie's success. It's not naive because Barbie was some freak accident. That's a good movie with a powerful message, and it can play well in most places. The company that owned the toy thought it meant their other toys, like a Magic Eight Ball, would also make good films, and that led to Vin Diesel getting hired to write a movie about plastic red and blue toys that hit each other.
He reveals in the post that his mom flew in to read his script, as she's apparently read every one he's written. Then, he notes that her seeing herself in his film is how he feels seeing himself in the Fast franchise. It's absolutely bananas. It's even crazier when you realize that, given that his mom had to travel to read the script, there's a non-zero chance Vin made her sit in a room, Marvel style, to read it and snatched the script away as soon as she was done. Gotta keep the secrets of that IP under wraps for as long as you can, they're simply too good!
I'll put the whole post below if you want to read it, and I recommend that you do. I don't think ole Vin has much left in the tank, so I'm sure he really does want the franchise he helped build to go out with a bang, but that doesn't make this whole post feel like he's grasping at straws. This isn't his first tease of the movie, and it hasn't started production yet, so maybe he should wait until the cameras start rolling before he tries to get people excited again.
