All Right, Who the Hell Else Could Return to the Fast and Furious Series?

Ever since Fast and Furious 6 brought back Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty from apparent death, the Fast and Furious franchise has become known for its dramatic comebacks, with various other beloved characters like Han (Sung Kang) being brought back from the dead or reappearing after long absences. The recent Fast X delivered two such returns, with Gal Gadot’s Gisele Yashar appearing after being presumed dead in Fast and Furious 6 and Dwayne Johnson reprising his role as Luke Hobbs despite his infamous feud with series star Vin Diesel. Gadot and Johnson’s levels of fame make these the biggest returns possible for the franchise, but they also raise the question of who the next films could bring back.

The next possible comebacks can be divided into two categories: the characters who would need to be brought back from the dead and those who simply haven’t appeared in a while. Some of the most notable members of the former group are Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), Jesse (Chad Lindberg), and Vince (Matt Schulze). Of these three, Elena seems the most likely to be brought back. A former Brazilian police officer, she was a love interest of the main character Dom Toretto (Diesel) and the mother of his son and Fast X made a point to keep her memory alive by introducing her sister, Isabel (Daniela Melchior). Jesse and Vince were original members of Dom’s team, but they were killed off in the first and fifth films, respectively. Given that those are two of the most popular films in the franchise, the creators may not want to alter their stories by bringing the characters back.

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How to Bring Back the Dead?

In addition to the question of whether or not the creators would want to resurrect these characters, there is the question of how they would do so. Letty, Han, and Gisele’s “deaths” occurred in ways that made it easy for later films to add in retcons through which they managed to survive. In fact, at least in Letty’s case, it seemed like the death was specifically staged in such a way as to make this possible. This is not the case with Elena, Jesse, or Vince. Dom and other characters personally witnessed all three deaths and Jesse and Vince’s dead bodies were briefly shown onscreen. However, even this doesn’t necessarily disqualify them from potentially returning and the franchise’s spin-off film might hold the key to them doing so.

The first, and so far only spin-off of the franchise, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, revolved around Hobbs and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) battling the terrorist organization Eteon, whose main operative in the film was Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a former ally of Shaw’s from his time working as an MI6 agent. After Brixton failed to recruit him into Eteon, Deckard shot him in the head, reasonably assuming that this meant Brixton was dead. However, Eteon was able to save him with the use of advanced machinery, turning Brixton into a lethal cyborg with superhuman powers.

The film ends with Hobbs and Shaw defeating Brixton in combat, after which the mysterious leader of Eteon activates a fail-safe in Brixton’s head that kills him. Eteon and the leader remain undefeated. With the status of a possible sequel to Hobbs and Shaw unclear, it’s possible the next film in the main Fast and Furious series could address these lingering plot threads. Perhaps Eteon will unite with Dom’s current enemy Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) and bring former allies of the team like Elena, Jesse, and Vince back as a cyborg army. That would certainly be a way to raise the emotional stakes of the film while also posing a physical challenge to the continuously growing group of protagonists.

The Living But Absent

In addition to the dead, there are also plenty of characters who, like Hobbs, have simply been absent from the most recent films for one reason or another. The most significant of these is Mr. Nobody. Played by Kurt Russell, the mysterious character was a high-ranking member of a U.S. covert-ops agency with multiple connections to Dom’s team, who he helped navigate the world of international espionage. The character’s absence is frequently referenced in Fast X with his whereabouts unknown, seemingly even to his daughter, Tess (Brie Larson). This allows Aimes (Alan Ritchson), who is secretly an ally of Dante’s, to turn the agency against Dom and company, who Tess attempts to assist. Given all this, not to mention the dire situations the team is in at the end of the film, it would be surprising if Mr. Nobody didn’t return to help out in the next installment.

There are a plethora of minor figures from throughout the series’ history that could be brought back, but there are also some more major characters still missing. One is Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes). A U.S. Customs agent, she served as a main character in 2 Fast 2 Furious, in which she worked with Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) to take down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), and temporarily replaced Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) as Brian’s love interest. Despite this leading role, the character has only made one brief appearance in a subsequent film, meeting with Hobbs in the post-credits scene of Fast Five. Writing her back into the series would be relatively easy, as the team continues to accrue more and more government contacts with each film. Also absent from Fast X were Han’s fellow cast members from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the franchise’s third chapter. Tokyo Drift has a notoriously complicated position in the series’ timeline and aside from Han, characters from it have only reappeared in Furious 7 and F9: The Fast Saga, but all of the protagonists are alive and well, so they could potentially return in one of the upcoming films.

The longest-delayed possible comeback would be that of Leon (Johnny Strong). A street racer and member of Dom’s team, Leon appeared as a main cast member in the original film, The Fast and the Furious, but despite surviving that film he has never appeared or been referenced since. His absence has always stuck out as very odd given how often the series returns to familiar faces and its emphasis on the familial bonds between the characters. Finally bringing him back in one of the concluding chapters would emphasize that the franchise hasn’t forgotten where it came from.

The Fast Saga has played fast and loose with which characters are alive and dead, bringing back characters with relative ease. With the Fast Sage wrapping up soon, and with two surprise characters popping up at the end of Fast X, it might be time to look back through the series’ history and bring back some more of The Family.