Perhaps the weirdest aspect of The Fate of the Furious (AKA Fast & Furious 8) was the fact that Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) was suddenly brought in as one of the good guys, cracking jokes with The Rock and gaining the respect of the Toretto family. While it was fun to see the dynamic between Shaw and the rest of the gang, it made no sense from a storytelling perspective given that in the post-credits scene of Fast & Furious 6, we see him murder Han (Sung Kang) in cold blood. As established in the fourth, fifth and sixth movie, Han is one of Dominic Toretto’s closest friends. On top of that, Deckard Shaw spent the entire seventh movie trying to kill the good guys. The whole idea of Luke Hobbs (The Rock) and Deckard Shaw working together in Hobbs & Shaw felt a little weird.
However, long-time Fast & Furious writer claims that it’s all part of their bigger plan. In an interview with EW, Chris Morgan mentioned that they’re building towards a payoff for that storyline.
“I love ‘justice for Han.’ Sung Kang is a great friend, and Han is a character that I adore. I would say that the super-arc for Deckard Shaw is going to be one of the most interesting, cool, rewarding character arcs in the franchise. Justice for Han is owed. It’s something we have discussed for a very long time and want to give the right due to. I think the audience will be satisfied and should know it’s coming.
There’s a line in Hobbs & Shaw that is right before the battle in Samoa where Shaw says to his sister, ‘There’s things I’ve done that I have to make amends for.’ That line was specifically written and put in there just to let everyone know that he is talking about Han — it is on his mind. It tortures him, and he’s going to get to it.”
Having watched Hobbs & Shaw (review will be out tonight), I can concur that that line is indeed in the movie. So perhaps they are planting the seeds for a (hopefully) emotional payoff and not just sweep it under the rug with a couple of quick and funny one-liners.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is currently screening in Malaysian cinemas.
