Vin Diesel recently dropped a bombshell. The Fast and the Furious (F&F) is heading to the small screen on Universal’s streaming platform, Peacock. Diesel and his team are reportedly developing four spin-off series, with plot details still locked away.
It’s been 25 years since the original film hit theaters, and nobody could have predicted this level of aggressive expansion. As of 2026, the franchise boasts 10 main-saga films, live-action and animated spin-offs, and now a slate of TV shows. This is all leading up to Fast Forever, promised to be the grand finale in March 2028. To appreciate how wild this is, compare F&F to other mega-franchises. James Bond, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and the MCU are all built on massive libraries of books or comics. F&F? It was inspired by a single 1998 Vibe magazine article titled ‘Racer X’ by Ken Li. Talk about stretching a premise to its absolute limit.
Ken Li’s article explored the underground street-racing subculture of late-’90s New York. Producer Neal Moritz and director Rob Cohen turned that gritty reality into a $38 million action flick. It was an instant, highly profitable hit. Dominic Toretto—inspired by Rafael Estevez, a real-life Dominican racer featured in the article—became an instant icon alongside the franchise’s signature recipe of fast cars, diverse antiheroes, explosive action, and beautiful people. But as the sequels piled up, the franchise traded its street-level grit for pure, unadulterated absurdity.
The first three installments—The Fast and the Furious (2001), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Tokyo Drift (2006)—were deeply rooted in tuner culture. But by Fast Five (2011), street racing became mere window dressing for high-stakes heist films. This was the turning point where physics went out the window, famously illustrated by Dom and Brian (the late Paul Walker) dragging a multi-ton bank vault through the streets of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro.
Mr. Policeman Should Write These Guys a Ticket
It only got weirder from there. Fast & Furious 6 featured a runway chase so long it would require an airstrip estimated at 25 kilometers in real life. Furious 7 saw cars skydiving out of planes and jumping between the Etihad Towers. By F9 (2021), Tej (Ludacris) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) were literally flying a rocket-propelled Pontiac Fiero into outer space.
These characters started as street racers stealing DVD players. Somehow, they mutated into elite tactical operatives, international spies, and functional superheroes who can survive anything. The franchise even developed a habit of resurrecting dead characters, only to bring them back with soap-opera-style amnesia. The franchise is fully self-aware of its ridiculousness; in F9, Roman jokes that they might actually be immortal. It has become a desperate people-pleaser, trying so hard to satisfy everyone that it’s burning itself out on its own performative spectacle.
Audiences are starting to feel the exhaustion, and the box office numbers prove it. The franchise peaked financially with Furious 7 (2015) at $1.5 billion. Since then, it’s been a downward slope: $1.2 billion for The Fate of the Furious (2017), $726 million for F9, and a franchise-low $704 million for Fast X (2023).
Critics saw this coming. Decades ago, the legendary Roger Ebert reviewed the first film and noted it ‘doesn’t have a brain in its head.’ He used the word ‘preposterous’ for the sequel. While audiences once tolerated the brainless fun, the soul of the franchise has been completely hollowed out.
NPR’s Linda Holmes pointed out that by trading its authentic street-racing roots for generic blockbuster action, F&F became a perfect metaphor for Hollywood’s worst corporate impulses—adaptable and resilient, but entirely stripped of its original identity for the sake of profit. Even Rolling Stone went as far as to describe the plot of Fast X as ‘lifeless ChatGPT’—a series of prompts copy-pasted together without a shred of human soul.
Yet, none of this seems to faze Vin Diesel. Driven by his obsession with ‘family,’ he seems determined to keep the barbecue going on streaming TV. But let’s be real: if regular street racers get ticketed, shouldn’t someone finally pull the brakes on a crew of self-proclaimed superheroes who destroy entire city infrastructures for breakfast? It’s time to write these guys a ticket.