The first trailer for Fast & Furious 9, also known as F9, was released last year, and one of the major revelations was that Sung Kang’s Han Lue, who was assumed to have been murdered during the events of Tokyo Drift/Furious 7, was still alive.
This dramatic comeback came years after the #JusticeForHan campaign began, which was in response to the fact that the guy who temporarily removed Han from the board, Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, was enthusiastically welcomed into Dominic Toretto’s gang at the conclusion of The Fate of the Furious. Shaw was once a villain, but today he’s firmly established as a hero in the franchise.
It’s still unclear how Han Lue is still alive, but F9 director Justin Lin was keen that perhaps the character return, even promoting #JusticeForHan during the shooting of the next Fast & Furious film, long before we knew he would. In an interview with Empire, Lue expressed his opinion on the campaign, saying:
“The whole #JusticeForHan movement made me realise, ‘Wow, there are people out there who respect what I did as an actor.’ “Wow, there are actually individuals from all over the world who admire what I accomplished with that character,’ I thought in my own Hollywood battle as an Asian-American.”
Justin Lin, if anybody could bring Han Lue back into the Fast & Furious universe, it would be him. He not only directed all of the Fast & Furious films in which Han featured, but he and Sung Kang also agreed that Han is the same person who appeared in the 2002 film Better Luck Tomorrow, which was released barely a year after The Fast & Furious.
So the character had previously meant a lot to both of them, but the #JusticeForHan campaign made Kang understand how passionate the people were about Han. Vin Diesel has discussed Han’s significance in the Fast & Furious universe, noting that he embodied the idea of Fast & Furious 9: don’t lose up on family.
Sung Kang, for one, isn’t blind to the craziness of Han Lue reappearing in the film, calling his Fast & Furious journey as “crazy.” F9 will deal with #JusticeForHan in its own manner, in addition to understanding how Han escaped that horrific flame.
It’ll be fascinating to see how that’s done, especially since Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson were occupied filming the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff. Even with whatever F9 has in store, there’s still the possibility that these two characters may meet in one of the last two Fast & Furious films.
John Cena will make his F9 debut as Jakob Toretto, Dom and Mia’s estranged brother who has joined up with Charlize Theron’s Cipher. F9 will now be released on June 25, more than a year after it was initially scheduled to be released. Check out our list of upcoming movies in 2021 to see what else is coming out this year.
