We’re a little less than a year away from the seventh “Fast and Furious” movie and fans of the franchise have received a plethora of news about the upcoming movie. The biggest news came at the end of “Fast and Furious 6” when Jason Statham was revealed as the next villain in the series.
(Statham will play Ian Shaw, Owen Shaw’s brother who is trying to get revenge on Dominic Toretto—played by Vin Diesel—and his team.)
However, that got me thinking. While Jason Statham is the perfect fit for the Fast and Furious movie—wouldn’t it better if he wasn’t playing the villain?
In most of Statham’s movies (or at least the recent one’s anyway) he has dominated the screen, kicking butt and taking names.
He has been an absolute beast whether its cars, guns or hand to hand combat. He’s piled up quite a bit of wins as the good guy in his movies.
Unless new “Fast and Furious” director James Wan has a totally different view for the series, we can expect Statham, as Ian Shaw, to take a loss to Toretto and his crew.
Personally, I would rather see Statham, the Rock and Vin Diesel team up for a bald-headed, tough-guy, butt-kicking trio. The only issue with this is that whoever challenges them as the villain in the movie may be no match, causing the movie to last no more than 30 minutes.
Now, in the “Fast and Furious” franchise it is not unheard of for a former Villain to work with Toretto and his team. (i.e. the Rock from “Fast Five” to “Fast and Furious 6.”)
In addition, Statham recently said he didn’t want to be the bad guy.
“I didn’t really want to play the villain,” he admitted during an interview with Empire. “But there are certain moments where you think it might be a good time to do that. I’m not saying I’m the full-blooded… I’m not going to tell you too much about what I’m going to do in the film, but if it’s a good villain, there’s obviously some consideration to be made, but there are some really bad villains out there, and I don’t want to get myself wet with that s**t.”
So, Mr. James Wan, let’s make that happen. Let’s add Ian Shaw to Toretto’s team, for “Fast and Furious 8.”
