Jason Momoa is joining the Fast and the Furious franchise with Fast X – but apparently, it wasn’t a lighthearted easy-going decision. Momoa was all too aware of the behind-the-scenes controversies that have become part of The Fast Saga movies in recent years – namely the feuds between major cast members like Vin Diesel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Tyrese. Given all that ugly history, Jason Momoa had every right to worry that he was stepping into some serious “drama.”
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“I was expecting there to be a lot of – I mean, to be completely honest – drama, and you’re like, ‘I want nothing to do with this.’ But I saw nothing of the sort,” Momoa explains in the new issue of Total Film. “It was amazing. Everyone was so supportive. I had a ball with Vin. I was just shocked at how cool everyone was. No one was jaded; everyone was just really, really happy to be there.”
In addition to all the aforementioned drama within the cast, the longtime time franchise director dropped out of Fast X just days into filming it, leaving Universal scrambling. The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier hopped on board as a replacement, and Jason Momoa says the switch was a happy one for him, at least! In Fast X Momoa plays Dante, the flamboyant and ruthless son of Fast Five villain Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida); apparently, Leterrier was all too happy to let Momoa cook while creating the character:
“There was no holding me back. Normally, a director will say ‘Don’t do that.’ But Louis was like, ‘Do more!’ He was really fun that way,” Momoa revealed.
Family will be a big theme of Fast X (shocker), as Brie Larson is also playing a next-generation character: Tess, the daughter of Kurt Russell’s CIA agent “Mr. Nobody.”
The Fast Saga needs all the good PR testimonials it can get going into Fast X – especially from big new cast members like Jason Momoa or Brie Larson. The notion that new cast members are coming in and only having a great time on set goes a long way to pushing those negative stories about production out of memory.
Fast X Synopsis
Fast X, the tenth film in the Fast & Furious Saga, launches the final chapters of one of cinema’s most storied and popular global franchises, now in its third decade and still going strong with the same core cast and characters as when it began.
Over many missions and against impossible odds, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family have outsmarted, out-nerved and outdriven every foe in their path. Now, they confront the most lethal opponent they’ve ever faced: A terrifying threat emerging from the shadows of the past who’s fueled by blood revenge, and who is determined to shatter this family and destroy everything-and everyone-that Dom loves, forever.
In 2011’s Fast Five, Dom and his crew took out nefarious Brazilian drug kingpin Hernan Reyes and decapitated his empire on a bridge in Rio De Janeiro. What they didn’t know was that Reyes’ son, Dante (Aquaman’s Jason Momoa), witnessed it all and has spent the last 12 years masterminding a plan to make Dom pay the ultimate price.
Dante’s plot will scatter Dom’s family from Los Angeles to the catacombs of Rome, from Brazil to London and from Portugal to Antarctica. New allies will be forged and old enemies will resurface. But everything changes when Dom discovers that his own 8-year-old son (Leo Abelo Perry, Black-ish) is the ultimate target of Dante’s vengeance.
Directed by Louis Leterrier (Clash of the Titans, The Incredible Hulk), Fast X stars returning cast members Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Jason Statham, John Cena and Scott Eastwood, with Oscar® winner Helen Mirren and Oscar® winner Charlize Theron.
The film also features an extraordinary new cast including Oscar winner Brie Larson as Tess, a rogue representative from the Agency; Alan Richtson (Reacher) as Aimes, the new head of the Agency who doesn’t hold the same fondness for Dom’s crew as his predecessor, Mr. Nobody; Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) as a Brazilian street racer with a powerful tie to Dom’s past; and legendary Oscar winner Rita Moreno as Dom and Mia’s Abuelita Toretto.
Fast X is produced by Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel, Justin Lin, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Samantha Vincent. The executive producers are Joseph M. Caracciolo, Jr., David Cain, Chris Morgan, Amanda Lewis and Mark Bomback.
Fast X is planned to race into theaters on May 19.
