Summary

Fast & Furious 11 will conclude the main saga, but it needs John Cena for the biggest movie yet.
Cena’s return as Jakob Toretto may be absurd, but his star power is crucial for the final installment.
Despite the character’s fate in Fast X, the franchise’s history of surprising returns leaves room for Cena’s comeback.

Fast & Furious 11 will end the franchise’s main movies, and despite how ridiculous his return would be, the film needs John Cena. The franchise began in 2001, and although Fast & Furious will still continue through the Hobbs spinoff and some other potential projects, the upcoming movie is set to be the conclusion to the main saga after more than two decades of movies. As a result, the film needs to include John Cena, but his character’s fate in Fast X indicates that the star is unlikely to feature in Fast & Furious 11.

John Cena first appeared as F9’s antagonist, Jakob Toretto, but wound up joining Dom’s crew at the end of the film and assisting them in Fast X. This continued Fast & Furious’ villains turned hero streak and appeared to make Cena’s character a mainstay until the finale. However, Fast X seemingly killed off Jakob towards the movie’s climax, putting his return in doubt. While Jakob returning from the dead would be ridiculous, Fast & Furious 11 needs him, meaning the franchise will have a tough decision to make if they want to bring back Cena for their final installment.

Fast & Furious 11
is scheduled to be released in 2025.

John Cena’s Presence Is Needed To Make Fast & Furious 11 The Franchise’s Biggest Movie Yet
Fast & Furious 11 Needs John Cena’s Star Power To Make It A Truly All Star Cast

Given Fast & Furious 11 is gearing up to be the franchise’s biggest film yet, John Cena’s presence is required to make it as star-studded as possible. Sung Kang returned to the franchise in F9, and with The Rock and Gal Gadot back for Fast and Furious 11, the franchise is clearly getting all its biggest names back for the final movie. The franchise also introduced Brie Larson, Alan Ritchson, and Jason Momoa to the film series in Fast X, proving Fast and Furious 11 is set to have an all-star cast to ensure a strong close to the saga.

This means dropping John Cena at the final hurdle would feel like wasted potential, as his presence would undoubtedly add to the movie. His reputation would help boost anticipation for Fast & Furious 11 and potentially its box office. Despite making $714 million, Fast X was a box office disappointment due to its huge budget. While several Fast & Furious installments crossed the $1 billion threshold, having Cena appear alongside these huge stars could help Fast & Furious 11 replicate this success. The final movie needs all its major characters, and leaving out Cena’s Jakob Toretto would be a huge blow.

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Related Vin Diesel May Have Spoiled Fast & Furious 11’s Ending With $2.7 Billion Movie Comparison Dom’s death happening in Fast & Furious 11 may have been spoiled already, with Vin Diesel comparing the upcoming movie to another big franchise.

Why John Cena Can Return To The Franchise Despite It Being Ridiculous
John Cena’s Jakob Toretto Returning From The Dead Wouldn’t Be A Franchise First
Custom image by Yeider Chacon

Although John Cena returning to the franchise would be absurd, Fast & Furious 11 can still pull it off. Over the years, several Fast & Furious characters have been supposedly killed off, only to return. Han, Gisele, and Letty have all survived seemingly fatal incidents, only to return in a future movie. While this trend may be problematic for some franchises, Fast & Furious often leans into its over-the-top, extravagant nature, meaning these returns worked despite being ridiculous. The movie series’ track record means that, despite Jakob Toretto’s sticky situation, the character’s fate isn’t necessarily sealed.

Jakob Toretto being alive wouldn’t be overly shocking given Fast & Furious’ history, but it would still provide the movie with a big moment and give Jakob some extra motivation to help his brother. Given Cena is great at both action and comedy, he is the perfect fit for the franchise and could make his return scene emotional yet hilarious. It may be a bit of a tired trope for the action series, but having a character return from the dead one last time would be worth it to ensure John Cena is part of Fast & Furious 11.

Fast and Furious 11 Fast and Furious 11 is the final movie in the Fast Saga. It reunites Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto with the rest of the cast for one last ride. However, the franchise is open for spinoff films like Hobbs & Shaw afterward.Director Louis Leterrier Release Date April 4, 2025 Distributor(s) Universal Pictures Writers Christina Hodson , Oren Uziel

Summary

Fast & Furious 11 may bring back Elle, played by Anna Sawai, as her rising popularity could add to the film’s success.
The franchise has a history of bringing back fan-favorite characters, expanding the cast with each installment.
Anna Sawai’s recent success in Shogun proves she is a talented actor, making her return as Elle in the next movie a smart move.

With Fast & Furious 11 just around the corner, the upcoming film could still take advantage of Anna Sawai’s rising popularity. Following the success of Fast X in 2023, a followup was quickly put into production to pay off that film’s cliffhanger ending. Since it’s been rumored that this next installment could be the last for the Fast & Furious series, it would be a perfect opportunity to bring in multiple characters from the franchise’s past.

Fast & Furious already has a habit of bringing back fan-favorite characters. Fast Five, which originally could’ve ended up as the final entry in the series, went all out and brought together the casts of disparate installments, such as Tej, Roman, and Han. The series even complicated its own timeline for a while in order to bring back Han, who had been killed off in the third film The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift but still had a prominent role in the fourth, fifth, and sixth films. Since then, the recurring cast of the series has only grown larger.

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Related Predicting The Ending Of All 13 Fast & Furious Characters In Fast 11 The Fast Saga is set to conclude with Fast & Furious 11 – or Fast X 2 – but how will Dom Toretto and his family’s stories come to a definitive end?

Fast & Furious 11 Should Bring Back Anna Sawai’s Elle
Custom image by Yeider Chacon.

Anna Sawai appeared in F9: The Fast Saga as an adopted daughter of the character of Han. It’s revealed that Han actually faked his own death in order to go into hiding to protect Elle as a young girl as her DNA is the MacGuffin driving the plot. The villains are seeking a weapons system known as Project Aries, and only Elle’s DNA can activate it, so Dom and his crew set out to rescue her. In the end she’s shown joining up with the rest of the crew and becoming an official part of the Toretto extended family.

Elle didn’t make an appearance in Fast X. This was likely due to the relatively large cast of characters, both new and returning, with only a limited amount of space to focus on them. Along with that, despite her connection to Han she was only really involved in F9 as a plot device and thus would not have had much to do during Fast X. This is a missed opportunity because in the wake of F9 Anna Sawai has established herself as an exciting up and coming talent.

Shogun Proves Why Anna Sawai Should Have A Bigger Role In The Fast & Furious Franchise

FX’s new miniseries Shogun has proven to be a bona fide hit, both critically and commercially. One of the standout aspects has been Anna Sawai’s performance as translator Mariko. She’s played a prominent role in the story, and will no doubt continue to grow in popularity as an actor thanks to it. She’s also one of the lead roles in Monarch, which has been successful enough to be renewed for a second season.

Fast & Furious has already established her character prior to these breakout roles, and the franchise is now presented with an excellent opportunity. If they bring back Elle for the next installment, it will only benefit from Anna Sawai’s rising star, and her own career would only be boosted by the move as well. If it’s true that Fast & Furious 11 will be the final entry in this long-running franchise, then it only makes sense for the filmmakers to pull out all the stops and bring back all the characters they’re able to.

Summary

Han’s appearance in Tokyo Drift made him a beloved fan favorite, leading to a reworked Fast & Furious timeline.
Sung Kang’s portrayal of Han strikes a perfect balance of humor and heart in the franchise.
Some of his best moments include fight scenes, unexpected team-ups, and heartfelt reunions with his Fast family.

The Fast & Furious franchise has introduced a lot of beloved characters over its 11-movie run, but Han is the series’ greatest addition. His appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift made him an instant fan favorite, so much so that the franchise altered the entire Fast & Furious timeline for his character. To have Han reappear in the franchise, Tokyo Drift was retroactively turned into a sequel that takes place after the events of Furious 6. Even after that, the series found inventive ways to bring him back.

Justin Lin’s 2002 film
Better Luck Tomorrow
is considered an unofficial origin story for Han.

It’s no wonder why Han became such a fan favorite. Sung Kang’s performance as Han Lue (aka Han Seoul-Oh) strikes the perfect balance of humor and heart that the Fast franchise is known for. Maybe even more importantly, he manages to remain effortlessly cool even in the face of danger, whether he’s facing off against the Tokyo Yakuza or getting into a fistfight on top of a moving car. Although Han’s role in the series is limited compared to some of the other characters, he’s made a massive impact on the story and has countless iconic moments.

Related Fast And Furious: Every Major Character Death (& Which Movie They Died In) As Dom and his crew will tell you, a Fast and Furious life is dangerous. Good and bad guys alike have met their end in the car-racing franchise.

10 Motorcycle vs. Tank Chase
Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious 6 is full of great action set pieces. During the chase scene on the Spanish military base, Dom’s crew is given the impossible task of stopping Shaw’s team from getting away with the Nightshade device, which they’re transporting across a highway in a massive tank. Han and Gisele speed off on motorcycles to try and stop the transport, but when Gisele is nearly crushed against the side of an oncoming truck, Han is forced to literally leap into action. He jumps from his motorcycle into the speeding car and grabs the wheel just in time to save Gisele.

This diversion also gives Gisele enough time to pull a gun on Shaw’s henchman, allowing her and Han to take control of the car. Although Gisele and Han may have seemed like an unlikely pairing when they were first introduced as teammates, scenes like this prove how well they work together and how much love and trust is shared between them. Hopefully, this dynamic will be explored even more after the reveal that Gisele is alive in Fast X.

9 Rescuing Elle and Project Aries
F9

Family is one of the biggest themes in the Fast franchise. Dom’s team operates as a family, which makes it even more impactful that while Han was forced to stay away from one family for years, he found someone else to care for. It’s revealed in F9 that Han was recruited by Mr. Nobody in Tokyo. He was assigned to recover a device called Project Aries, but after the scientists who created the project were killed and Han learned that the key to unlocking the device was their daughter, Elle, he took it upon himself to protect and raise her.

The scene where Han rescues Elle isn’t just a cool showcase for his fighting skills. It also demonstrates what makes Han so special as a character. He cares deeply about people and is willing to risk himself to keep others safe. Knowing that he remained in hiding for years not just for his own safety, but to protect his adopted daughter completely recontextualizes his absence from the previous movies.

8 Standoff in Hong Kong
Fast & Furious 6

It’s almost a running joke in the series that Gisele and Han will travel anywhere in the world together except for Tokyo, because viewers know that Tokyo is where Han supposedly died. At the start of Fast & Furious 6, the couple is enjoying a date night in a Hong Kong marketplace. Their heartfelt discussion about settling down together quickly gets off track when the police arrive. Although the police are only trying to pass along a call from Dom, Han and Gisele instinctively engage in a well-coordinated standoff, which is one of the coolest scenes in the movie.

Not only does this moment provide a great bit of fight choreography, but it perfectly illustrates the dynamic between Han and Gisele. They’re family who always have each other’s backs, especially in the face of danger. The scene also emphasizes Han’s desire to settle down with Gisele, which makes her fate at the end of the movie even more tragic.

7 Han’s “Death” in Tokyo
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Although The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is considered an outlier in the franchise because it doesn’t feature Brian or Dom (except for a brief appearance in the end credits sequence), Han’s death in the movie ended up being one of the most impactful moments in the series. Han’s death deeply affects Sean and leads him to challenge Takashi to a dangerous race in the mountains leading to the film’s climax. In the grand scheme of the franchise, Han’s Tokyo Drift death also sets up Shaw’s involvement in the series and lays the groundwork for Mr. Nobody and Project Aries.

But setting aside those impacts, Han’s crash is simply a heartwrenching scene. Even with a limited amount of screentime in Tokyo Drift, Han was instantly loveable, and it hurts to see such a dynamic character die painfully – even if, in hindsight, viewers know that he doesn’t really die. If Han hadn’t been such a fan favorite in the film, viewers wouldn’t have demanded him to return, and the franchise would look completely different than it does today.

6 Driving into the Sunset With Gisele
Fast Five

Most viewers don’t instantly consider romance when they think of the Fast & Furious franchise, but the series has delivered some genuinely sweet and touching love stories during its run. Han’s romance with Gisele is secretly one of the biggest driving forces behind his character. Their scene at the end of Fast Five features some incredibly unsafe driving practices, but it’s also a tender moment between two typically guarded characters.

Instead of spending their heist earnings on gambling or parties like some of the other characters do, they choose to use their money to travel the world together. The scene is a reminder of how the Fast franchise is, at its heart, a story about the different forms that family can take. Watching these two characters drive off into the sunset is a perfect note to end the film on.

5 Reuniting With the Family
F9

Han’s return to the franchise was emotional. There were eight years between his last on-screen appearance in Furious 6 and his long-awaited return in F9, so the scene had big expectations to live up to. While the characters had been through a lot since they’d last seen their friend, they clearly hadn’t forgotten about Han, leading to one of the most touching and cathartic moments in the franchise.

Tej and Roman’s stunned reactions to Han’s reappearance are both funny and heartfelt, and his hug with Dom shows a softer side to both of the characters. Even Ramsey, who had never met Han at that point, reacts in a way that made it clear she’d been told about how important he was. These emotional reactions emphasize Han’s importance to the family and how much he had been missed by the characters – and by the franchise overall.

4 Teaming Up With Shaw
Fast X

The #JusticeForHan movement was launched after Shaw, who was thought to have killed Han, was accepted as a member of Dom’s family – or at the very least, an ally to the crew. Even after learning that Han didn’t really die in the crash, fans had conflicting feelings about someone who was thought to have murdered a beloved character being forgiven so easily. With all of that in mind, the eventual confrontation between Shaw and Han was already primed to be dramatic, and Fast X delivered with an incredible fight scene.

Related Who Is In Fast X? Cast & Character Guide Fast X sees Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodgriguez return as fan favorite characters, Dominic Toretto and Letty Ortiz. But who else is in the cast?

Although Han doesn’t have any hard feelings, Shaw automatically assumes that Han is there for revenge. This leads to a quick and brutal brawl, and Han’s hilarious line “You ruined my snacks” after Shaw knocks a bag of chips out of his hand. However, their fight is interrupted as Agency members swarm Shaw’s warehouse, and they’re forced to team up to defeat the bigger threat. Through this experience, they overcome their past issues and develop a sense of trust for each other, which becomes crucial later in the movie. The fight scene is thrilling and explains why the characters’ relationship evolves so quickly.

3 The Subway Fight Scene
Fast & Furious 6

It’s rare to see a hero lose a fight in the Fast franchise, which makes the subway fight in Furious 6 even more of a standout moment. Although in the past, Han has shown that he has some impressive fighting skills, he and Roman quickly realize that they’re no match for Owen’s henchman. Although the fight is 2-against-1, Han and Roman end up getting badly beaten. Even their attempts at teamwork backfire when Roman accidentally misaims a punch and knocks Han out momentarily.

It’s one of the most realistic moments in the franchise, which has shown much more improbable fights go off without a hitch. The scene is a hilarious and rare example of a fight gone wrong and proves that the characters of the Fast franchise can still be heroic without winning every single fight.

2 Teaching Sean To Drift
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Han’s friendship with Sean in Tokyo Drift perfectly encapsulates what makes him such a great character. After Sean asks Han why he trusted an inexperienced racer with his expensive car, Han responds, “I have money. It’s trust and character that I need around me.” This sums up Han’s entire outlook on life and sets the basis for him helping Sean become a part of the Tokyo racing scene, eventually connecting him to Dom and the rest of the family.

The training scene highlights what makes their friendship so great. Han’s annoyance and enthusiasm as Sean slowly picks up the basics of drifting is both funny and touching, striking that balance that the Fast franchise does so well. The sequence also establishes why Han’s later death hits Sean so hard and motivates him to participate in the final race of the film.

1 Han’s Snack Obsession
Every Fast & Furious Movie

The most iconic aspect of Han’s character has to be his constant snacking. It’s a charming quirk that has come to be synonymous with him over the course of the franchise, similar to Dom’s love of Corona. Han always has a bag of chips in hand, whether he’s planning a heist or about to get into a fight. Even when he reunites with the family in F9, he arrives holding a snack. Gisele comments on this habit, guessing that it’s because he needs to keep his hands busy after quitting smoking.

Although there’s never any real explanation for Han’s love of snacks, it’s a subtle mannerism that adds a real lived-in quality to the character. As the Fast & Furious franchise grows and continues to introduce increasingly quirky characters into its cast, Han’s obsession with chips still has yet to be beat.

The Fast And The Furious The first film in the Fast & Furious franchise, The Fast and the Furious introduces Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), an undercover cop tasked with infiltrating Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) gang of street racers in order to investigate a string of vehicular heists. Falling in love with both Toretto’s sister and the world of street racing, O’Conner finds his sense of duty strained to the limit by loyalty to his newfound friends. Director Rob Cohen Release Date June 22, 2001 Cast Jordana Brewster , Michelle Rodriguez , Rick Yune , Vin Diesel , Paul Walker Runtime 106 minutes