Yesterday at Universal Studios Hollywood, the new ride Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift officially opened. The roller coaster sends riders down 1¼ km of track at over 110 km/h, while the ride cars rotate 360° to simulate drifting. Of course, Dom’s Dodge Charger and Brian’s Nissan GT-R are there.
And with Sung Kang’s new movie ‘DRIFTER‘ screening at TIFF this week, how cool is it to also see Han’s orange VeilSide RX-7 FD on the ride?
Universal threw a full-blown grand-opening party Tuesday night, complete with a tire-marked red carpet, dancers, music, flames, smoke, pyrotechnics and speeches. And because this is Fast & Furious, they had a chain-cutting ceremony instead of a ribbon cutting. But there was one rather noticeable problem: Vin Diesel, expected at the event, was a no-show.
This wasn’t some random theme-park event. Dom’s Charger is literally part of the attraction. With ‘Fast Forever’ looming in 2028 and coming off the excitement about the 25th-anniversary screening of ‘The Fast and the Furious’ last month, suddenly Dom Toretto doesn’t turn up to the family barbecue?
Instead, Universal executives Scott Strobl and Mark Woodbury handled the ceremony. No disrespect, but nobody bought a ticket hoping to meet a couple of suits! Jeepers, even Hector and Jesse from the original movie would have been better. Especially since Diesel showed up when Fast & Furious: Supercharged opened in 2015 alongside Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson and Jason Statham.
And the timing is interesting. Just days ago, Cody Walker gave an interview saying he isn’t interested in standing in for his late brother again, something he and Caleb did to help finish ‘Furious 7‘ after Paul Walker’s death in 2013. If Brian O’Conner really is supposed to return for the finale, that could create one hell of a complication. Naturally, social media has already started connecting dots that may not even belong together.
Maybe Cody simply wants his brother’s farewell left alone. Maybe saying “no” is also a pretty effective negotiating position. And maybe Vin missing Universal’s giant F&F celebration has nothing to do with any of this. But come on. The timing is interesting.