Fast 9: Did Ludacris Just Confirm The Movie Goes To Space?

There's been a long-running joke that The Fast and the Furious franchise would get so crazy that the characters would eventually venture into space. But is that joke about to become real? In a new interview with Sirius XM's "The Jess Cagle Show", Fast & Furious franchise star Ludacris talked about how the movies' creative team is using the downtime during the coronavirus pandemic to make the next few installments of the series as big and bold as anything they've done. That led host Jess Cagle to bring up the 'Fast & Furious: In Space" joke - and surprisingly enough, Ludacris actually teased that space could be a part of the upcoming Fast 9!

"You just said something very important," Ludacris teases a few moments after the space comment from Cagle. "I will say that you are very intuitive, cause you said something right, but I'm not going to give it away."

That tease led Cagle to press harder, and once again ask about a possible Fast 9 space sequence: Ludacris didn't answer the question verbally, but the look on his face seems like pretty big confirmation that yes, Fast 9 will have a sequence set in space. You don't have to take our word for it - just look for yourself:

The thought of F9 taking things to space is actually not that crazy (stick with me here). The franchise (and its Hobbs & Shaw spinoff) has been venturing deeper into sci-fi/tech territory, for awhile now. The Fate of the Furious introduced Charlize Theron's hacker villain Cipher, who will return as the antagonist of F9. Cipher's vast array of tech allows her to monitor and control things on a global scale; so, the only way to blind her (and/or devices like the "God's Eye") may require Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his team to take out an orbital satellite or two.

If you actually go back and watch the F9 trailer, it looks like there's actually multiple hints at some kind of space or low-orbit mission in the footage. We see Ludacris' character Tej and Tyrese's Roman Pierce meet up with Lucas Black's Sean Boswell from Tokyo Drift. That crazy crew seems to be working on some kind of contraption involving a car that's been fitted with a rocket booster. We figured the team just really needed a burst of speed for a key piece of the mission - but hey, maybe they're about to go aerial?

Would the Fast & Furious franchise feel like it jumped the shark with a space sequence? Led us know in the comments!