Summary

• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was a standalone movie with little connection to the main franchise, but despite being one of the best movies, it was the lowest-grossing.
• The only other movie that moved away from Dominic Toretto's family was Hobbs & Shaw, but it didn't receive a sequel.
• Continuing the Fast and Furious franchise without Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto would be very difficult, as the most successful films focus on Toretto and his family.

Continuing Fast and Furious after Fast X, Part 2 without Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto is very difficult, and the franchise’s first box office flop proves it. More than 20 years after The Fast and the Furious (2001), what is now referred to as the Fast Saga has gone through major changes. Whereas recent Fast and Furious films have all followed a similar style, it took a while before the franchise found its identity.

For example, Vin Diesel did not return for 2 Fast 2 Furious, whereas Paul Walker was not in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. It was only in 2009, eight years after the first Fast and Furious movie, that the saga resumed Dominic Toretto’s story. Walker and Diesel’s returns to Fast and Furious in 2009 right after the saga’s 2006 flop was no coincidence, and they helped the series regain momentum. Even though the upcoming Fast & Furious 11 is expected to be the end of the Fast Saga, Fast and Furious might have become too big to end.

Tokyo Drift Moved Away From Dom Toretto & Brian O’Connor (And Flopped)

Tokyo Drift is the lowest-grossing Fast & Furious movie

To this day, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is the only truly standalone Fast and Furious movie with little to no connections to the main movies. Of course, Vin Diesel appears in Tokyo Drift, but only in a very brief cameo that does not impact the movie’s story at all. Likewise, while Tokyo Drift’s placement in the Fast and Furious timeline has been retconned, the film was never intended to be part of a major storyline involving Han, Deckard Shaw, and Mr. Nobody. Instead, Tokyo Drift was an attempt to reboot Fast and Furious with all-new characters and no mentions of previous events.

Whereas 2 Fast 2 Furious brought Brian O’Conner back, Tokyo Drift tried to do Fast and Furious without either Brian or Dom. Interestingly, despite moving away from everything that had defined the franchise up until that point, Tokyo Drift surprisingly worked. As a movie, Justin Lin’s first Fast and Furious film is very solid, from the character interactions to the action sequences. However, despite arguably being one of the best Fast and Furious movies, Tokyo Drift is the lowest-grossing movie in the franchise. The $157 million box office return on a $85 million budget meant that Fast & Furious 4 would have to go back to Dom and Brian.

Fast and Furious’ future past Fast X Part 2 remains a mystery, but continuing without Dom would be very difficult.

Continuing Fast & Furious Without Dominic Toretto Is Virtually Impossible

Fast & Furious might not have a future past Fast X, Part 2

The only other example of a Fast and Furious movie that moves away from Dominic Toretto entirely is Hobbs & Shaw, which grossed $760 million on a $200 million budget. That said, whereas Tokyo Drift introduced an all-new set of characters, Hobbs & Shaw followed two of the biggest names of the franchise – Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw. Even so, Hobbs & Shaw 2 never happened, and The Rock is starring in a new Fast and Furious spinoff that builds up from Fast X’s ending. That is not to mention 2 Fast 2 Furious which, despite featuring Paul Walker’s Brian, wasn’t a success.

Tokyo Drift was much better than 2 Fast 2 Furious, plus more innovative and fresh than what Hobbs & Shaw would achieve more than a decade later. Still, it did not perform well at the box office and serves as the perfect example of how difficult it is to continue Fast and Furious without Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto. The most successful Fast and Furious films are the ones that focus on Toretto and his family, from Fast & Furious (2009) reuniting Dom and Brian to the more recent Avengers-esque films. Fast and Furious’ future past Fast X Part 2 remains a mystery, but continuing without Dom would be very difficult.

Sources: The Numbers