Han’s death was one that never sat well with me. Okay, wait, that’s a lie. It’s something that sat well with me just fine in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, but when it was retconned into a Deckard Shaw-related death, that’s when it started to rub me the wrong way. It felt awkward, convoluted, and slightly unearned at the end of the day, and things got even worse when Deckard Shaw sat back with a beer at a rooftop barbecue at the tail end of Fate of the Furious.
Many fans had already been clamoring for #JusticeForHan, and instead, they got a Hobbs & Shaw spinoff, where his supposed murderer frolicked around with Dwayne Johnson for two long hours. The most we got from that film was a comment from Shaw about atoning for past sins, which seemed promising for the future.
And then the trailer for F9: The Fast Saga hit and blew us all away. Not only did the balls-to-the-wall action continue unabated, but they re-introduced Han into the fold, who is no worse for wear following his supposed death at the end of Fast & Furious 6 (or Tokyo Drift, if you will). But…is this one big, fat, juicy mistake for the franchise? Do they run the risk of undercutting yet another death in the series (the other big one being Letty)?
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“I won’t go into details or anything,” director Justin Lin told EW, “but I do think that bringing him back is nothing I take lightly — and it took a lot — but I think what I appreciate is that this universe has really grown and it allows us to evolve and really kind of redefine ourselves as we go.”
But can they actually make his return meaningful?
“When I left [the franchise after Fast & Furious 6], I felt it was appropriate and I felt like we were putting the [Han] character to bed, but it’s because of some of the things that happened that didn’t quite make sense to me, and so I felt like if I was going to come back, I really wanted to explore why. I think it’s really up to us to bring him back and explore it throughout the themes that we’re all used to.”
This line is interesting to me. More specifically “some of the things that happened that didn’t quite make sense to me.” Is this a reference to Deckard Shaw being all buddy-buddy with the rest of the Fast Family at the end of Fate of the Furious? And just how integral will Han be to the story?
If we’re to take his word for out, it sounds like the theme of the entire film could revolve around him, and if so, could we be treated to an embittered Han who wants nothing more than to get revenge on the “family” that abandoned him? After watching the trailer, I do get the impression that John Cena’s character will ultimately join the Fast Family, and Charlize Theron’s character being the big bad seems like a bit of a cop-out…so could Han actually be the one to take out the Fast Family from the inside?
And, if so, is this the way we wanted our beloved Han to return? Is this really giving us justice for Han? Or is it one big mistake?
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SOURCE: EW
