F9 Director Reveals Sequel's Place in Fast & Furious Franchise Timeline

You may not expect it if you haven't seen the films, but the chronological timeline of the Fast & Furious franchise is more convoluted than even the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With a new movie in the series coming later this month in F9 one might worry that the order to watch the movies might have been changed, but the good news is that the ninth film in the main series lands exactly where you'd expect. Insider brings word from franchise director Justin Lin who confirmed that F9, despite having previously been scheduled to be released first, does take place after the 2019 spinoff film Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

"Justin Lin confirmed to me that #F9 takes place after H&S," journalist Kirsten Acuna tweeted. "You may have thought that's obvious, but, at one point, #Fast9 was set to come out prior to H&S before it was delayed and I like to keep the FF 'sacred timeline' in check." That timeline is one that starts simply enough with 2001's The Fast and the Furious and its sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious coming first. Third in the chronology is actually the fourth film (confusingly titled Fast & Furious) following by the fifth and sixth entries. Seventh in the series is the third film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, with Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, Hobbs & Shaw, and F9 rounding it out.

At least two more Fast & Furious movies are planned in the series with both a tenth and eleventh film already confirmed to be in development. Surprisingly, star and producer Vin Diesel is the one that opted to bring the series to an end rather than continue to churn out new films in perpetuity.

Justin Lin confirmed to me that #F9 takes place after H&S. You may have thought that's obvious, but, at one point, #Fast9 was set to come out prior to H&S before it was delayed and I like to keep the FF "sacred timeline" in check.https://t.co/fnnfArIewh https://t.co/N3USnPRQwc

— Kirsten (@KirstenAcuna) June 17, 2021

"Every story deserves its own ending," Diesel told The AP when asked about the franchise's future. "I know people are going to feel like it doesn't have to end, but I think all good things should ... There are reasons for a finale. I think this franchise has deserved it."

Even with the eleventh film "ending" the series, more movies are in the works including a sequel to Hobbs & Shaw as well as an untitled women-fronted spin-off, which was being written by Nicole Perlman, Lindsey Beer, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.