Fast X hit theaters this weekend, and fans of the franchise agree that Jason Momoa stole the show as Dante Reyes, the latest villain to go up against Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his “family.” Recently, Fast X director Louis Leterrier spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the film and revealed some fun facts about Momoa’s character. Not only did one Dante scene require approval from Universal Studios’ chairman, but much of the movie’s opening sequence used deleted scenes from Fast Five in order to include Dante. During the interview, Leterrier also explained how they came up with Dante’s frequent use of the word “enchanté.”
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“That was my suggestion,” Leterrier, who is French, said with a laugh. “What you have to realize is that Jason and I love each other. We found each other on this movie, and we realized that making each other laugh was a great way to create Dante. So we rewrote the dialogue together. I’d say, ‘You should say enchanté,’ and then we would add ‘very bad daddy.’ So we really liked making each other laugh, and the extra points, the joker of our game, was to get Vin to crack up and come out of character as Dom Toretto. So we tried really hard, like when Dante calls Dom ‘butthole,’ but Vin is so focused when he is on set that it was impossible. And when we would call cut, Vin would be like, ‘Oh, you guys tried really hard!’ So we were like kids on set, and it was absolute fun.”
How Does Jason Momoa’s Character Tie In To The Fast Saga?
Jason Momoa’s Dante is the son of Hernan Reyes, who was played by Joaquim de Almeida in Fast Five. You can read the official description of Fast X‘s connection to Fast Five here: “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.”
Fast X is now playing in theaters.
