When the first trailer for Fast & Furious 9 was released last year, there was one moment that set fans’ hearts racing like a souped-up muscle car. It wasn’t the epic stunts, or even when John Cena was introduced as a sibling rival to Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto. It came right at the end, after Michelle Rodriguez’s character Letty announced: “Hey guys… surprise!”. In walked Sung Kang’s Han, calmly snacking away as if we hadn’t seen him killed off three movies ago. After a quick shot of Han back behind the wheel, the screen filled with the words: “Justice is coming”.
That phrase might not mean much to the casual Fast & Furious viewer, but for the many who participated in the #JusticeForHan social media campaign, it represents that rare thing – a major studio actually listening to what its fans really want. The campaign, which was started by LA Times film reporter Jen Yamato before gaining widespread support, sought to right a karmic wrong in the Fast & Furious universe. At the end of the sixth film, we’d learnt that Han’s fiery death was the handiwork of Jason Statham’s vengeful assassin Deckard Shaw – yet by the conclusion of the eighth film, Shaw was being welcomed with open arms into the ever-expanding Toretto family.
The Collected Works of Kevin EG Perry 