The iron grasp of franchise media is so dominant over all genres of cinema that it sometimes seems impossible to harm any of the big names. News from the intensely controversial Fast and Furious franchise serves to prove that even the biggest names in filmmaking are mortal, and they can still bleed.
Justin Lin has dropped out of the director's chair for Fast X, the tenth film in the monstrous blockbuster franchise. He simultaneously left Fast & Furious 11, which was set to start production immediately after the tenth film wrapped. Lin cited creative differences as the reason he quit the job, and while fans don't currently know any major details, it's worth wondering just where the franchise will go without his hand on the wheel.
Before asking how the franchise can go on without him, it must be made clear exactly what Lin brought to the franchise over his 16-year tenure with these films. Justin Lin directed 2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third film in the franchise. It's more akin to a spinoff than it is to a sequel, deviating completely from the sparse narrative of the first two films. Tokyo Drift was savaged by critics, as is every entry in the franchise, but Lin's direction was regularly praised. Lin returned three years later for Fast & Furious, his first tangle with the original family. His big fingerprint on the franchise started with Fast Five, the film believed by most to redefine the franchise. He went on to direct Fast & Furious 6 before an eight-year hiatus from the franchise. He returned to direct last year's F9 and was scheduled to take on the tenth and eleventh films before dropping out.
Justin Lin directed five of the nine currently released Fast and Furious films. That's more than half, but even that understates his impact. Tokyo Drift is seen as a weird diversion by most with a ton of silly problems, and no one seems to look back at the fourth film with much fondness, but Fast Five is a landmark moment in the franchise. The fifth film is the turning point, where a series formerly about street racing culture becomes a series about vaguely car-themed superheroes pitting hilarious special effects against each other. There is a hard line, two defined epochs of Fast saga films, and Justin Lin is responsible for that changeover. There is no way that The Fast and the Furious of 2001 could've spawned the franchise that exists today. The ongoing franchise is the offspring of Fast Five, which is what makes Lin's exit from the franchise such a significant loss.
Lin is a key figure in the Fast saga, but luckily, he isn't the only one. Chris Morgan is a screenwriter who has been with the franchise for the entire time Lin has been attached. Like Lin, he joined the project with Tokyo Drift, but unlike Lin, he never left. Morgan wrote the screenplay for every film since the third, and his writing is just as key to the franchise as Lin's direction, if not more so. Morgan has also served as executive producer for a couple of the films. He is set to remain on the project after Lin's absence, and his continued presence should be a balm to the burn of Lin's exit. This continued presence of a strong hand in the franchise is a good sign that the series will continue its unique and dubious quality past Lin's absence. Beyond that, Morgan wrote for Fast films in the past during Lin's hiatus, meaning he's worked with other franchise directors before.
Finally, Lin may have directed the most important movie in the franchise, but he didn't direct the best one. That unusual honor sits with James Wan. 2015's Furious 7 is almost unquestionably the best film in the franchise. The format had been established by Lin's previous pair of films, allowing Morgan and Wan to really bring out the best of the franchise without becoming too dumb. The following film, The Fate of the Furious, stands as another stellar example of the franchise, courtesy of director F. Gary Gray. So long as a good director takes the helm, and Chris Morgan remains writing the script, the franchise could remain as good as fans remember it.
It is a shame to see Justin Lin leave the franchise he built. Once the word comes out regarding exactly what kind of creative differences pulled him from the project, it could deal a weighty blow to fan enthusiasm. But long as the franchise is transferred carefully to the hands of a skilled filmmaker, and Chris Morgan sticks around, fans will have two more fun adventures with the family in the following years. In this era of franchise dominance, it's rare for one creator to put so much into a universe, but hopefully, filmmaker-driven film can take its rightful place back someday.