Why The Fast and the Furious Films Are Just Superhero Movies in Disguise

Let’s be honest: in recent years, The Fast & Furious movie franchise has evolved from street racing action to becoming a full-blown superhero saga with crazy stunts, larger-than-life characters, and superhuman feats.

From Street Racing to Superhuman Showdowns

What began as an undeniably early 2000s film about tuned cars and undercover cops quickly became one of the most unhinged film franchises ever created. Somehow, Fast & Furious manages to up the ante with each of its sequels, taking its leads to outrageous speeds and unthinkable heights.

For some, The Fast and The Furious saga has an identity crisis, jumping so many sharks that The Meg might as well be a part of the series. However, the numbers don’t lie, and the Fast & Furious saga remains as profitable as ever. Perhaps part of the reason why people love the Fast & Furious movies so much is that they are essentially superhero flicks with cars. No, really – it makes perfect sense.

Iconic Characters Drive the Franchise Forward

Let’s begin with the basics: a franchise lives or dies by the quality of its characters. Fortunately for The Fast and The Furious, its larger-than-life ensemble has a fantastic on-screen chemistry.

From the start, Paul Walker and Vin Diesel made the series iconic thanks to their uneasy relationship that eventually developed into a legendary bromance. As the series progressed, new faces joined Toretto’s eclectic crew, each bringing their own quirky uniqueness to the films.

Villains Straight Out of Comic Books

With villains like Deckard and Owen Shaw, the Reyes drug lords, and Charlize Theron’s Cipher, Fast & Furious has no shortage of iconic bad guys. And let’s not forget about one particular villain that changed the rules for the Fast & Furious universe for good: Brixton Lore.

Almost every major setpiece in the Fast & Furious series defies the laws of physics. That’s just part of the franchise’s charm. However, for the most part, the characters in the films are “normal” people. And then you have guys like Brixton Lore – a cybernetically enhanced special agent with a vendetta. When you see characters like that, you know the series has jumped the shark.

Competing with Marvel and DC

Fans joke about how F9 finally took the crew to space, but it’s safe to assume Fast & Furious abandoned any attempts at grounded storytelling since at least Tokyo Drift. It had to do it – they were competing with the MCU at the box office. People wanted to see colorful characters engaging in impossible stunts, and that’s precisely what the franchise delivered.

When you’re going against Marvel and DC at the box office, you need something for your films to stand out when people look at your posters in cinemas. The first The Fast and the Furious film had its iconic tuned cars, like Paul Walker’s green Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Supercars and Superheroes: A Perfect Match

As the series progressed and people no longer loved the whole “tuned car” aesthetic, Fast & Furious adapted, giving us more cars but also tying them to the human characters. That’s how we know Toretto always drives muscle cars, besides his legendary 1970 Dodge Charger R/T.

Then, we got the “special” cars. Vehicles like the “Flip Car” are something you’d expect from a superhero film, not exactly a crime thriller saga. That’s what kept fans engaged with the franchise – you never knew what the producers would come up with next.

With characters coming back from the dead, secret lost brothers reveals, and literally superhuman characters like Brixton, the Fast & Furious saga abandoned any pretensions of it being a fast-paced crime thriller long ago. What it is, however, is a superhero franchise for people who love fast cars and over-the-top stunts. With a main cast that changes supercars faster than Iron Man changes suits, it’s safe to say that The Fast and Furious movies follow Paul Walker’s character legacy by being the most successful undercover superhero saga ever made.

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Tell us, do you think the Fast and the Furious films are superhero movies?