Vin Diesel celebrates 25 years of ‘Fast’ franchise, recalls its journey from street racing to global phenomenon
Vin Diesel has celebrated 25 years of the ‘Fast’ franchise, recalling how it began as a small street-racing film before becoming a global phenomenon. He also thanked the cast, crew and fans who helped turn the saga into a family.
Mumbai: As his “Fast” franchise turns 25 this year, Hollywood star Vin Diesel celebrated the moment and recalled how it began as a small street-racing movie before growing into a global cinematic phenomenon embraced by all.
Diesel shared a string of pictures from the re-release of the original film “Fast and Furious”.
He wrote: “This week I stood in front of a crowd…Familiar faces. Smiles I’ve known for twenty-five years and smiles I’d never seen before, everybody in that room about to sit down together and celebrate where it all began.”
The star spoke about his “Fast” family.
“My family was out there. My Fast family. Crew and studio folks who’ve carried this thing for decades, some of them in meetings hours earlier, still building the finale, still trying to get the ending right for a saga that was about to show the world its first page again.”
Diesel shared that no one knew what to expect from the first film’s release 25 years ago.
“Twenty-five years ago, I didn’t know what to expect. Nobody did. We were making a small movie about street racing and we had no idea. What I saw this week was community. A profound one.”
“Some in that room can tell you exactly where they were standing in the summer of 2001. Some had never seen this movie in a theater in their lives. And some had never seen it at all, first-timers, walking in through the same door the rest of us walked through a quarter century ago. Tomorrow, it belongs to everyone,” he added.
Talking about the re-release he shared: “1,561 theaters across the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. 1,836 screens. Some of you will feel the seats move. Some of you will be under an open sky at one of 30 drive-ins, which is about as close to 2001 as a person can get.”
“And this afternoon, before any of it officially begins, somewhere the lights go down first. Eighteen hundred rooms. Same headlights coming on. I don’t take a single one of those seats for granted,” he wrote.
“To the thousands who brought their magic to this saga over 25 years, and to every one of you who made us a family instead of a franchise, thank you. You built this. I just got to be there for it. See you at the theater.”
The first installment titled “Fast & Furious” is an action media franchise centered on a series of films revolving around street racing, heists, and spies.
The first film, based on the 1998 Vibe magazine article “Racer X” by Ken Li and written by Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist, and David Ayer, was released in 2001.
The first four films focused on illegal street racing, culminating in Fast & Furious. The series moved towards heists and espionage with Fast Five, which was followed by five further films in that genre. An eleventh and final film, Fast Forever, is set for release in 2028.
