The Fast & Furious franchise has been one of the fastest-growing cinematic universes over the past two decades. When the first film, The Fast and the Furious, premiered back in 2001, fans couldn't have predicted how many movies and spin-offs it would open the door for.
There are eight movies in the main series of films, but F9 is scheduled to release in 2021. There are also plans to develop, at the very least, a tenth and eleventh entry in the franchise as well.
Also, the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off has a sequel in the works, a female-led spinoff is in development, but there are short films in the universe. There is even an animated show, Fast & Furious Spy Racers, which explores Dominic Toretto's younger cousin, utilizing the character as an opportunity to introduce the franchise to children who may not be familiar with the stories in the main series that have unfolded for twenty years.
Dreamworks is releasing a new season of Fast & Furious Spy Racers called Sahara, and to help promote the show, we spoke with producer and director Tim Hedrick. Hedrick is best known for his writing on Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, and Voltron: Legendary Defender, and while we touched on all three of those shows, our focus was on Sahara and the children in the series.
We asked him what the reason was for introducing new characters, specifically children, instead of following more adventures of the main players from the series. We got a very detailed and informative answer.
"Well, there are a few, there are a few reasons for that. One is just in terms of reaching a younger audience. We wanted to feature some younger characters. So that was part of it. Part of it is just a production issue of dealing with all of the Fast franchise's superstar talents and other projects and duties. Just getting Vin in for a record, it takes an entire company to make that happen. So, there's a lot of scheduling issues. Creatively, when I pitched the show to Dreamworks, I wanted to have something that would stand alone, something that people could watch without seeing any of the Fast movies.
We were assuming that kids coming in may not be familiar with the franchise at all, so they can watch this and not have to have any real prior knowledge of what the Toretto family was up to in the past. Then it allows us to shift the tone a little bit and brings in more comedy and kind of makes it lighter and more fun not to have to worry about people's preconceptions about what a Fast project will be like."
Hear our full conversation with Tim Hedrick (Avatar, Voltron) and Bret Haaland (Futurama, The Simpsons) using the podcast player below. We've also included the trailer and synopsis for Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Sahara, so be sure to share your thoughts in the usual spot!
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
When Ms. Nowhere and Gary disappear while on a mission in the Sahara, the Spy Racers must step up to the plate and finish what Ms. Nowhere started. Get ready to speed under the Saharan sun in the all-new season of Fast & Furious: Spy Racers.
Dreamworks' Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Sahara will be available on Netflix on December 26th.