Michelle Rodriguez Officially Returning for ‘Fast & Furious 9’

Michelle Rodriguez said she will be playing Letty Ortiz in the upcoming ninth Fast & Furious movie after she successfully lobbied Universal Pictures to finally add a female writer to the franchise’s writing team.

During the Bloomberg Equality Summit in London Thursday, Rodriguez said she was prepared to leave the series two years ago, until Universal hired a female writer, reports The Daily Mail.

“Yeah, I’m gonna do 9,” Rodriguez said after noting that Universal Pictures executive Donna Langley agreed they needed a female perspective on the series. Langley “came on board at the studio, and agreed to have that female voice on board so the guys aren’t basically interpreting that female voice on paper,” the former Lost star explained.

Rodriguez, 40, said it was “annoying” that her character was only written by male voices, and claimed she would often re-write her own dialogue because she “felt like there wasn’t enough of a female voice in the franchise.”

“I’m tired of being a writer and an actress, you know?” she continued. “It’s kind go cool that I had that freedom, but it’s frivolous.”

Rodriguez said she also got frustrated by how rarely she shared scenes with her female co-stars, especially Jordana Brewster. The two stars have become close friends over the years, but rarely shared scenes.

“I can count with two hands how many times I spoke to my female colleagues. Like Jordana, who played the sister. I’ve been in the franchise for 16 years, and I can count on both hands how many times we’ve actually had a conversation on screen, and I thought that was pathetic,” Rodriguez said Thursday. “And I said if I’m coming back, I really want there to be a female writer to give it a female voice, and finally they showed me some love.”

This is not the first time Rodriguez has publicly expressed her displeasure with the lack of female representation in the high-octane action franchise. In a June 2017 Instagram post, she said she hoped the ninth F&F movie would “show some love to the women of the franchise.”

“Or I just might have to say goodbye to a loved franchise,” she wrote. “It’s been a good ride & Im grateful for the opportunity the fans & studio have provided over the years… One Love.”

Rodriguez has played Letty Ortiz in five F&F movies, starting with the first one in 2001. The character also appeared in Fast & Furious (2009), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Furious 7 (2015) and The Fate of the Furious (2017), as well as the 2009 short Los Bandoleros.

Rodriguez did not mention the name of the female writer Universal picked for Fast & Furious 9. According to the film’s IMDb page, the only credited writers so far are franchise veteran Chris Morgan and Kin writer Daniel Casey. Director Justin Lin is also directing it, marking his first film in the series since the sixth film.

The next film in the F&F franchise is its first spin-off, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. The movie hits theaters on Aug. 2.

Photo credit: Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images