Vin Diesel's Fast And Furious 11 Needs To Do One Thing In Order To Succeed
It took nearly three years but Universal Pictures is finally moving forward on the 11th (and presumably final) entry in the "Fast & Furious" franchise. As was recently announced by star Vin Diesel, the movie will be titled "Fast Forever" and is due to hit theaters in 2028. Get ready for more fast cars, Corona, and family.
Plot details are currently unavailable but "Fast X" left us with a big cliffhanger and plot threads that need tying up. By the time "Fast & Furious 11" arrives, it will be a full five years between installments. Will Universal pick up directly where that cliffhanger left off, with Dom Toretto and his son in peril at the hands of Jason Momoa's Dante Reyes? Regardless of where the story goes, the movie absolutely needs to do one thing in order to ensure that it's successful.
"Fast X" carried an eye-melting $340 million production budget, which doesn't even account for the hefty marketing spend. It was one of the most expensive movies ever made and some reports suggested that the budget may have been even higher. In any event, the movie grossed $714 million at the global box office, meaning it probably struggled to break even in theaters, let alone turn a profit. Granted, this franchise generates lots of money beyond theaters so it was undoubtedly worth it in the end for Universal.
That said, studios don't make these giant blockbusters just to break even. These are supposed to be the cash cows that do more than just help keep the lights on. All of this to say, "Fast Forever" is absolutely going to have to bring down the budget — by a lot. This movie has to be much cheaper, plain and simple.
Fast X was too expensive for its own good
Mind you, this isn't just me saying this. Granted, I do spend a lot of time analyzing box office happenings as a part of my job, so I'm not wholly unqualified to comment on such matters. But an October 2025 report from the Wall Street Journal indicated that a big reason why it's taken so long to get "Fast 11" off the ground had to do with budget concerns. Specifically, Universal reportedly wanted the budget reduced to $200 million, or they might even have been willing to not make it at all.
"The only thing we're focused on is making this a satisfying finale both creatively and financially," said producer Neal Moritz at the time. "Fast X" went way over budget for several reasons. One, because it was shot during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another was because director Justin Lin left the production after weeks of filming and was replaced by Louis Leterrier.
At the time of that Wall Street Journal report, the current draft of the script carried a budget in the $250 million range. That's still more than Universal wanted to spend by about $50 million. How or if they'll manage to get the budget down to a more manageable figure is unknown. It doesn't help matters that the cast has only grown over the years and those movie star salaries add up.
What we know for sure is that Hollywood has had an issue with franchise movie budgets for years, with rising production costs getting in the way of profitability. Even once-bulletproof franchises aren't immune to this, "Fast & Furious" included.
Fast Forever needs to be cheaper for the franchise to have a future
2001's "The Fast and the Furious" was a standard mid-budget action movie that was unexpectedly successful. It made $207 million worldwide on a $38 million budget. It was never intended to become a globe-trotting, blockbuster series, but that's precisely what happened. 2011's "Fast Five" made well over $600 million worldwide, expanding the scope of what the franchise could be.
Dom and his family were on an upward trajectory from that point on. It peaked in 2015 with "Furious 7," which made $1.5 billion and was, for a time, one of the ten highest-grossing movies ever.
That was then, this is now. Over the last seven years, none of these movies have come close to $800 million globally. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the box office has been on uncertain ground and the number of movies that can make $1 billion globally are fewer and further between. When one spends more than $300 million or more making a movie, it pretty much needs to make $1 billion to be a big enough success. That's no longer happening with Dom and the gang.
Universal had ambitious plans beyond the next sequel too, at one point announcing a new spin-off with Dwayne Johnson's Hobbs that has yet to materialize. If the studio hopes to continue this franchise with spin-offs and other ventures after the main saga is over, they have to bring the cost down. There's no two ways about it. There's still a lot of gas left in the tank, so to speak, but not if the costs continue to spiral out of control.
"Fast Forever" is set to hit theaters on March 17, 2028.