Buckle Up! There's Going to be a FAST AND THE FURIOUS Animated Series!

The Fast and/or Furious franchise is utterly ridiculous. Not just narratively or in terms of stunts—although that is thankfully the case—but on a real-world level. A mid-budget Point Break ripoff ended up spawning an eight film-long (with a ninth on the way) franchise of megahits, each one more over-the-top than the last. It’s a minor miracle that these movies exist. The franchise is even getting a spin-off: a buddy action film featuring Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard “Han Who?” Shaw (Jason Statham). So I guess the next natural step—in the sense that nothing about these movies is natural at all—is an animated Netflix series!

You read that right: because the adventures of Dom and friends weren’t cartoonish enough, we’re getting some extra F&F that is literally a cartoon. It’s only the latest project to come out of a multi-year deal between Netflix and Dreamwork Animation Television for original animated content, which has also given us Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters. So, what’s it about? There will obviously be cars. But will there be butts? It’s not F&F without butts. Let’s see what THR has to say about it:

The Fast and the Furious animated show revolves around teenager Tony Toretto, who follows in the footsteps of his cousin Dom when he and his friends are recruited by a government agency to infiltrate an elite racing league serving as a front for a nefarious crime organization bent on world domination. Tim Hedrick (DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender) and Bret Haaland (All Hail King Julien) executive produce and serve as showrunners. The series is executive produced by Vin Diesel, Neal Moritz and Chris Morgan who also serve as producers on the live-action Fast and the Furious franchise.

Yep. Cars. I don’t see anything about butts, but fingers crossed, right? Meanwhile, that synopsis sounds exactly like what a Fast and Furious TV show should be: equal parts extreme sports silliness and James Bond. I’m there for it. I think the biggest wild card is the animation style. I think the worst “creative decision” DreamWorks could make would be… being DreamWorks. There’s that certain samey DreamWorks style¹ that is simply too bland for a property like this. I’d prefer something that looks more like the upcoming Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, maybe with a dash of the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer?

At any rate, I’m looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. What are your thoughts? Is my optimism misplaced? While you’re thinking on that, why not do some background reading and check out the week we devoted to this gloriously bonkers franchise last year!