‘F9’ Post-Credits Cameo Is a Game-Changer

OK, Fast & Furious fanatics, let’s talk about that F9 post-credits, which, is really a mid-credits scene. If you’ve not yet watched the movie, run, run right now to a different story here on Fatherly. May I recommend you read my interview with Jimmy Smits about In the Heights? But I digress. Let’s get to that F9 post-credits scene and how it sets up F10.

Spoiler alert. You’ve been warned.

Fans first went bonkers when, in January 2020, an F9 trailer revealed that Han (Sung Kang) is alive and well. But… how? The beloved character died or seemed to… twice. It involves some major retconning of Tokyo Drift, the third F&F film, and the one in which Han died. Films 4, 5, and 6 are actually prequels to Tokyo Drift. Fast & Furious 6 revisited Han’s death, with Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw – brother of Luke Evans’ late Owen Shaw — taking credit for his vengeance killing of Han (in a big-ass car explosion), and setting Shaw up as a baddie supreme in Furious 7. This brings us to F9. Thanks to the pandemic, tension grew and grew, pressure-cooker style, as Universal delayed the film’s release. Deckard’s actions demanded a comeuppance. And poor Han, he deserved justice. Cue the #JusticeforHan hashtag. Director Justin Lin wanted to work again with his friend Kang. Kang had a real-life passion for cars, even hosting a podcast called Kang’s Garage.But dead is dead. Two films told us, beyond the shadow of a doubt that Kang… was… dead. Right? Wrong. Rules of every kind are broken in the Fast & Furious films, from criminal laws to the laws of physics. Hell, a car goes into space in F9, making it a sci-fi film. So, what’s a little death?

Still, Shaw had become a good-ish guy, a member of Team Dom (Vin Diesel), and even co-headlined Hobbs & Shaw with Dwayne Johnson. Han’s killer is now a “hero” or at least a good-guy protagonist? F9 fills in the blanks and then delivers a fun surprise with the post-credits capper. As for filling in the blanks, let’s just say that Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) greased the wheels, so to speak, of Han’s supposed demise in order to protect him. OK, it was a damn hologram! And Han was protecting Elle (Anna Sawai), who had to be alive for Project Aires to work (literally, as it required her DNA). And someone was out to steal Project Aries, with that someone being Dom’s estranged brother, Jakob (John Cena). Still with us?

Anyway, cut to the mid-credits scene. Han, like ALL of us, still has questions. Lots of them. And for answers, he goes to… Deckard, who is busy training and pummeling a weird-looking punching bag. Well, that bag contains a bruised and battered guy from whom Deckard demands information. Deckard zips up the bag to answer the door. Hello, Han, and hello F10 and F11, which are set to be the final Fast & Furious films with the main cast, though surely the spin-offs will continue.

F9 is in theaters now. And only theaters!