Fast & Furious Franchise Reportedly in Jeopardy and Facing Major Budget Cuts
The next Fast & Furious film was supposed to be the franchise's capstone, but things are not looking good behind the scenes.
Fast, furious, and extremely expensive! That’s the current state of one of Hollywood’s biggest film franchises. It began with a cop trying to prevent DVD player theft and has since explored storylines that deal with global geopolitics and space travel. Consequently, it’s now facing a new “braking” (hoho) point behind the scenes.
According to a new report from the WSJ, F&F’s latest installment, Fast X, cost an eye-watering $340 million, which makes it one of the priciest movies ever made. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the kind of coin that Universal were expecting at the box office, and now it’s facing some major budget cuts.
Studio execs reportedly told F&F’s producers to cut $100 million or more from the budget of the next entry (tentatively titled Fast X: Part 2), and the new target is about $200 million, which is still absolutely massive but much cheaper than Fast X.
How will they make these cuts? Well, there are options – like fewer exotic locations, scaled-back stunts and set pieces, and even smaller roles (or no role at all) for some veteran cast members. This would presumably not affect star and producer Vin Diesel, who has quite a bit of influence over the franchise’s direction and may end up battling the studio over his vision for the series’ capstone movie.
Still, all this turmoil might ultimately benefit the franchise rather than harming it. The films have become rather silly and outlandish, which is arguably part of their charm, but a return to smaller-scale storytelling could be a welcome change. After all, most of their themes of “fambly” and loyalty work just as well on the ground a quarter mile at a time.
Even though Part 2 doesn’t yet have a script, cast deal, or release date yet – two years after Fast X was released – it’s clear that Universal hasn’t totally given up on the franchise in general. There’s talk behind the scenes of expanding the F&F world into various other avenues, including further spinoffs and a live-action TV series.
But with Hollywood downshifting into smaller budgets after lower global returns in recent years, the Fast & Furious franchise will have to take its foot off the accelerator, too.
Written by
Kirsten Howard has paid their dues. Yes sir, the check is in the mail.