The Fast & Furious franchise has been around for 24 years. What started as a low-budget street-racing film has evolved into an epic blockbuster series spanning 11 films and $7.4 billion of ticket sales at the box office. With Vin Diesel at the lead as Dominic Toretto, people around the world have come to love the Fast & Furious movies.
While audiences were last treated to one of these releases in 2023 when Fast X came out, there is a promise that more will come. Universal is still developing Fast X: Part 2, but there are no confirmed details on when it is coming. Waiting for a return to this world has been frustrating for fans, especially after Fast X‘s cliffhanger ending.
Luckily, there is a new release connected to Fast & Furious that fans should not miss. It’s not a movie. It’s not even a TV show. Rather, there’s a new book diving into how this franchise has been made, including all the ups and downs, feuds, and difficult decisions that came along the way.
Welcome To The Family Is An Insightful In-Depth Look At Fast & Furious’ History
Launching today, November 25, Grand Central Publishing and author Barry Hertz have published the first-ever book about the making of the Fast & Furious franchise. It’s titled “Welcome To The Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters that Supercharged the World” and is a can’t-miss read for anyone part of this fandom family.
Grand Central Publishing’s official description of “Welcome To The Family” is as follows:
What do Miami drug traffickers, bloodthirsty Yakuza warriors, Corona-soaked backyard BBQs, Dame Helen Mirren, and a duct-taped 1984 Pontiac Fiero-turned-rocket-fueled spaceship have in common? They are all essential elements of the ever-expanding, logic- and laws-of-physics-defying Fast & Furious universe: the most entertaining, outlandish, and secretly genius Hollywood creation that everyone has taken for granted – until now.
Through an escalating series of high-risk maneuvers – from synapse-stretching stunts to timeline-bending narratives to explosive PR wars between the biggest, baddest, baldest egos in showbiz – the Fast family (and it is a family above all else) has redefined the art and commerce of popcorn moviemaking. And the gang did it all while staring down the kind of monumental, soul-rattling challenges – the death of a star, the upheaval of an industry – that would have crushed the speed and spirit of any other filmmaking team.
An unauthorized journey into the makings of a cinematic saga unlike any other, Welcome to the Family exposes the stranger-than-fan-fiction journey of the franchise from the ground up. Through rigorous behind-the-scenes reporting and incisive cultural commentary, writer Barry Hertz’s ride-or-die epic details every single twist and turn of Fast & Furious drama, a quarter mile at a time. By the end, you will believe a car can fly.
That is an apt description for this novel. I’ve already had the privilege of reading “Welcome To The Family” and can attest that it lives up to the promise of being an in-depth look at one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
“Welcome To The Family” is full of great interviews with crew members who have been instrumental to the franchise for years, providing personal stories on how they’ve dealt with various challenges or developed fresh ideas to pull off what seemed to be impossible. You’ll come to understand just how many people have poured their lives into making these movies a reality.
It also features some brand-new tidbits about the development of these films, showcasing just how many ideas have been considered over the years, including how some of them recur in future installments. And it doesn’t skip past franchise-changing moments, ranging from Diesel and Dwayne Johnson’s feud, Paul Walker’s death, or the turmoil behind Justin Lin’s Fast X departure.
Through it all, Hertz brings everything together with colorful writing, old and new facts, and insightful commentary on its past and future that makes the 365 pages from the prologue to the epilogue go by faster than a quarter-mile race between Dom and Brian O’Conner.
With the franchise’s future still in limbo, “Welcome To The Family” provides fans with an alternative way to connect to the Fast & Furious franchise than before, one that should bring a greater sense of appreciation and awe for what this series has managed to accomplish.
- Movie(s)
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The Fast And The Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, Hobbs and Shaw, F9: The Fast Saga, Fast X, Hobbs and Shaw 2, Fast X: Part 2
- Cast
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Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Lucas Black, Sung Kang, Bow Wow, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, John Cena
- Video Game(s)
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The Fast and the Furious (2004), The Fast and the Furious (2006), Fast & Furious: SuperCars, Fast & Furious: Showdown, Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, Fast & Furious Crossroads
- Character(s)
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Dominic Toretto, Brian O’Conner, Letty Ortiz, Roman Pearce, Monica Fuentes, Sean Boswell, Han Lue, Twinkie, Mia Toretto, Luke Hobbs, Deckard Shaw, Cipher, Brixton Lore, Jakob Toretto
- Comic Release Date
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213284
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
