The Fast & Furious 9trailer is now online, and it contains the usual array of over-the-top vehicular mayhem and testosterone action. However, Fast & Furious fans found out why this trailer premiere needed to be an event in the very last scene of the F9 trailer, when it is revealed that Han (Sung Kang) is alive and well and making a return to the franchise in this 9th film! That’s going to be a major shock and/or moment of validation for the Fast & Furious fandom, as “#JusticeForHan” has been a major movement in the franchise ever since it was revealed that Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw murdered him.
Videos by ComicBook.com
With Han’s return in F9, director Justin Lin has set up a major mystery that needs to be answered.
Han’s death in Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift wasn’t a major controversy at first; it was only when director Justin Lin moved into the main saga with Fast & Furious that we got the retcon reveal that Deckard Shaw actually killed Han during Tokyo Drift’s big second act drift race sequence, as Fast and the Furious 6‘s big post-credits scene reveal. That was still all well and good until The Fate of the Furious and Hobbs & Shaw turned Deckard from ruthless villain into sympathetic anti-hero. While a lot of fans embraced Statham’s bigger presence in the Fast and the Furious franchise, other fans (especially in the Asian community) felt as though embracing Deckard Shaw was a slap in the face to Han’s memory and importance in the franchise.
This reveal that Han is still alive and that (as the trailer’s tagline says) “Justice Is Coming” for the character is actually something the Fast & Furious producers have been teasing for some time. Back around the time of Halloween 2019, Fast & Furious producer Chris Morgan teased new developments with Han, while speaking to Comicbook.com:
“Well the only thing I’ll say about that is… I came in on Tokyo Drift,” Morgan teased at the time. “I’m a huge fan of that character, and Sung Kang. And you’re right, we’ve been… Over the course of the films, there’s a big arc, and a debt that’s owed. And I would just say for an audience, everybody involved in the films, loves all of our characters. We’re aware of all the character arcs, and what needs to get paid and where we’re going. And I would just say to an audience, just wait. Just hold on. Not a real comment beyond that, other than, we love the characters just like you do.”
Well now we know exactly what Morgan really wanted to say, but absolutely couldn’t at the time. And rightly so.
F9 will be in theaters on May 22nd.
