How Golden Girls Inspired Fast 5 To Bring Back Past Characters
Fast Five brought back characters from throughout the Fast and Furious franchise – a move director Justin Lin says was inspired by The Golden Girls.
Fast Five director Justin Lin says he was inspired by The Golden Girls to bring back characters from earlier in the franchise. The first four Fast and Furious films feature some overlap in characters, but largely focused on independent stories. That model changed in Fast Five, which incorporated characters from throughout the whole series to create a large ensemble that’s carried the franchise ever since.
When Justin Lin was first brought on to direct The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the franchise was about as disconnected as it could have been. Paul Walker returned for 2 Fast 2 Furious, but Vin Diesel did not, leading to a sequel that feels more like an independent spinoff. Tokyo Drift was even more disjointed from what had come before, introducing an entirely new cast of characters in a completely different part of the world. Fast & Furious returned to the story of the original film, but it wasn’t until Fast Five that all the movies were finally brought together in a cohesive way.
In a recent interview with EW, Lin cited an unexpected source of inspiration for bringing back old Fast and Furious characters in Fast Five – The Golden Girls. Lin said he was a big fan of the sitcom growing up, and that NBC’s “Hurricane Saturday” event, which saw episodes of The Golden Girls, Empty Nest, and Nurses all get hit by the same fictional hurricane, was his first real exposure to a shared cinematic universe. According to the director, that experience was a big influence on his desire to bring back past F&F characters in Fast Five. Lin said:
“The Golden Girls are part of the Fast lore because when I was a kid, I loved Golden Girls. On Saturday night, it was Golden Girls, and then it was Empty Nest [and Nurses], and then they had this thing called Hurricane Saturday Night, and all three episodes got hit by a hurricane. That was the first time I was like, ‘Ohhh, they all exist in the same universe!’ So that was the inspiration for Fast Five. We brought back all the characters. They all exist in the same universe. That’s the Golden Girls connection.”
Although Fast and Furious isn’t quite the crossover titan that the MCU has become, it has found immense success by embracing many different corners of the franchise. Minor characters from the older films have continued to pop into recent entries, creating a cohesive narrative world that’s continued to captivate fans. A big reason the franchise’s theme of family has worked so well is because of how often and effectively it’s brought back characters from earlier stories.
It looks like that model will be central to F9: The Fast Saga as well. Fan-favorite character Han (Sung Kang) is coming back from a presumed death in Furious 7, and several other Tokyo Drift characters are cameoing in the new movie as well. The Fast and Furious ensemble is a huge part of its international success, and it may not have happened at all if not for The Golden Girls.
