Vin Diesel Reveals ‘Fast & Furious’ 9 and 10 Director Will Be Justin Lin

Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel has confirmed the both Fast 9 and Fast 10 will be directed by Justin Lin.

While sitting down for a TODAY Show interview recently, the actor shared the news, saying, “It does get bigger. I just got off the phone with Justin Lin, who is directing Fast 9 and Fast 10, and I can’t tell you how excited he is.”

“We haven’t been to Africa, I can tell you that,” he then added. “And we are long overdue.”

Lin, as fans will remember, directed four of the eight Fast films, staring with 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He directed the next three films after that — Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6 — before taking a break from the franchise.

Fast 9 is currently scheduled to drift into theaters on April 10, 2020, but Fast 10 does not have an official release date.

While it’s exciting for fans to hear that plans are progressing on the next installments of the Fast & Furious films, the franchise will actually debut a spin-off before Fast 9 lands in theaters.

The spin-off is Hobbs and Shaw (rumored titled), and will see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Luke Hobbs) and Jason Statham (Deckard Shaw) reprise their roles from the action series.

It was recently reported that Deadpool 2 director David Leitch has been tapped to helm the film. The film will be written by Chris Morgan, who has written six other Fast & Furious films, including the most recent, The Fate of the Furious.

While the Hobbs and Shaw film is finally set to be an official entry into the Fast & Furious franchise, there’s a chance it could be the last time we see Johnson in the series at all.

According to JoBlo, Johnson was recently quoted as saying, “Vin and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer. And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating.”

“It took me some time, but I’m grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not,” he continued before adding, “But I wish him all the best, and I harbor no ill will there, just because of the clarity we have. [laughs] Actually, you can erase that last part about ‘no ill will.’ We’ll just keep it with the clarity.”

Johnson’s comment is likely not what fans want to hear, but is also not entirely surprising either, considering he and Diesel had a reportedly heated feud on the set of the last film, Fate of the Furious.

The tension between them is rumored to have gotten so bad that they hated even filming scenes together, and Johnson set the rumors aflame by posting on social media about unprofessional “candy a—es” on the set of the film.

Photo Credit: Jaimie Trueblood / Universal Studios