As anticipation rises for F9: The Fast Saga and the following two-part finale to the main Fast & Furious series, there are a few key characters who look perfect for a return. The franchise has escalated in its action and absurdity by exponential degrees over the past several films, leaving many fans wondering how the next three movies will possibly one-up the Fast & Furious franchises move to space in F9. At the very least, bringing back more characters from previous entries would be a great way to keep the emotional stakes high.
While Fast & Furious has succeeded at the box office largely because of its crazy action set pieces, the series’ fan ardor is primarily due to the characters. The overriding theme of family that runs through the series has maintained a simple but effective emotional hook, and the fact that so many once-minor characters have returned in later movies is a big part of that. The familia has changed and grown many times, but the core chemistry, however, has remained consistent.
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Fast & Furious has brought back, cameoed, and resurrected so many different characters since 2001 that it may seem like there’s no one left. In reality, there are a few former major players who would all be great additions to the Fast & Furious story’s final chapters in one way or another. For the purposes of this list, characters who have recently returned like Tego, Rico, or Owen Shaw aren’t under consideration. With luck though, fans haven’t seen the last of them either. Here’s everyone else who could and should return for Fast & Furious 9.
Monica Fuentes
![Eva Mendes as Monica Fuentes in 2 Fast 2 Furious](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Eva-Mendes-as-Monica-Fuentes-in-2-Fast-2-Furious.jpg)
In the grand scheme of things, 2 Fast 2 Furious is perhaps the least important film in the entire Fast franchise. Since Paul Walker’s hero was made a cop again in Fast & Furious, Brian’s arc in 2 Fast 2 Furious doesn’t feel particularly significant. The only real important moments are the introduction of Tej Parker (Ludacris) and Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson).
However, there’s another character in 2 Fast who played a major role, and that’s Eva Mendes’s Monica Fuentes. Aside from a tiny cameo at the end of Fast Five, Monica hasn’t come back to the series since the second film. However, that cameo alone – which shows her connection to both Hobbs and the Shaw brothers – is enough to justify her return. While Monica is simply a US Customs agent in 2 Fast 2 Furious, it wouldn’t take much finagling to bump her up to Interpol, or Mr. Nobody’s secret organization. Given where the franchise has gone before, it would be far from the biggest stretch fans have seen.
Monica returning for the end of the saga would be great in a couple of ways. She already has an established dynamic with several remaining core characters, which could add some fun new chemistry to the familia. She also could serve as a familiar but new face in the world of global espionage that Fast & Furious is now about. And of course, Mendes is just great. That alone is reason enough.
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Leon
In terms of Dom’s crew from The Fast and the Furious, most members are accounted for: Vince and Jesse are dead, Brian is retired (due to Paul Walker’s tragic passing), and Mia, Letty, and Dom all remain. That just leaves one person unaccounted for – Leon.
It’s implied that Leon goes on the run after the events of the first Fast & Furious movie, just as Letty and Dom do. Since he was implicated in the truck robberies committed by Dom’s crew, he would have likely had to go into hiding. However, while Dom and Letty are seen together at the beginning of Fast & Furious (after reuniting in the short film Los Bandoleros), Leon is nowhere to be seen.
That means he could be anywhere, leaving any number of believable reasons for him to come back into the story. Leon is the last remnant of Dom’s old home, life and family before everything got crazy, so it could be really interesting to bring him into the current state of the story as a foil or juxtaposition character. He has major history with Dom, Mia and Letty, and it’s safe to say that he would come out for them if they needed him, offering an interesting perspective on Dom going to space in Fast & Furious 9.
Suki
Another great 2 Fast 2 Furious character who sadly hasn’t been seen since, Devon Aoki’s Suki would be a great racer to bring back. Her on-again, off-again relationship with Tej and history with both Brian and Roman would be enough to bring her back into the fold. Plus, her clout in the street racing scene could be interesting from a narrative perspective. For the saga to get proper closure, it will have to balance the global espionage storylines with the series’ street racing origins. Suki’s return would be a great way to ground any more mild plotlines while also tying the old movies back into the finale.
Related: Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift is Now One of the Franchise’s Most Important Movies
The Tokyo Drift Crew
Now that Han is alive again, a trip back to Tokyo by the saga’s end seems almost essential. Han’s whole Tokyo crew, including Neela, Twinkie and Sean, are all presumably still alive and drifting. The fact that their mentor/friend/father figure is still alive seems like something they’d all be keen to know about.
The big trick with bringing back the Tokyo Drift characters is that it’s now been 15 years since the original movie was made. All the actors are 15 years older, while their characters aren’t supposed to have aged much at all. Lucas Black wasn’t a convincing teenager in 2006, and his cameo in Furious 7 was jarring to say the least but he is back for F9, as has already been confirmed. That said it will be a tough sell to bring the full Tokyo Drift crew back for a major appearance in F9 given the time that’s passed, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be fun to see the old drift family back together again in lieu of the Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift sequel that never happened.
Giselle
Yes she’s dead, but so was Letty, and so was Han, so it’s not as much of an impediment as it might be elsewhere. This franchise is not past raising characters from the grave, and they need to find some way to keep raising the stakes for multiple more movies. That’s not necessarily a good enough reason to actually do it. Fast & Furious has a chance to do right by Han’s story by bringing him back, and a lot of that story is tied up with his guilt and mourning over losing Giselle. His entire exile to Tokyo was because of her death, and the emotional payoff of his own resurrection would be severely weakened if she came back too.
What makes more sense is a Gal Godot cameo by way of a flashback. Han will theoretically be central to the closing chapters of the saga, so seeing some new glimpses of his life pre-Tokyo would be great for his arc. Giselle is also, at this point, the only member of the family outside of Vince and Jesse who’s died and stayed dead. As Dom and the rest of the crew come to terms with all they’ve seen and done through Fast & Furious, the loss of Giselle should be a major moment.
Next: What Happens After Fast & Furious 11? Fast Saga’s Future Explained