It’s a day we Fast & Furious fans have been looking forward to for several years now as actor Sung Kang returns as Han Seoul-Oh after his (apparent) death in 2006’s Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift.
When it was later revealed in Fast and Furious 6 that his death was actually at the hands of Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw fans wondered where it was all going. When Shaw not only then became a part of the Fast and Furious ‘family’ (and even got his own spin-off with Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs), fans started crying out for #JusticeForHan and it seems that Kang himself felt some of that bemusement.
“Han means so much to me because he was a character before Fast & Furious,” the star says in a new interview.
“Somebody asked me about Han and [Deckard] Shaw. I was like: ‘Wait, what? Shaw is at the barbecue in 8?’ Really, I was so confused. One of the big reasons to come back was I felt like we needed to correct something.”
Kang is talking about Justin Lin’s 2002 movie Better Luck Tomorrow which stars Kang in the role of Han long before he joined the Fast and Furious franchise. Lin took the character across to the franchise, meaning his movie is essentially a Fast and Furious movie that few people even know about. Which is great.
As Kang says above, Shaw’s character has been somewhat redeemed in the franchise after helping save Dom’s (Vin Diesel) child and in Hobbs & Shaw when he says he’s done things he’s not proud of, that was a nod to the death of Han. It’s a debt that needs to be paid and it looks like that payment is coming.
Justin Lin has said that Fast 9 is the first in a trilogy of movies to wrap up the Fast franchise… I’m willing to bet the Han/Shaw relationship could be a part of that story.
On returning, Kang said: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, this whole Fast & Furious journey. How do you get killed off multiple times and keep coming back? Like, come on. This is crazy… “The whole #JusticeForHan thing – it made me think, ‘Wow, there are actually people that appreciate the work I did as an actor’. In my own Hollywood struggle as an Asian-American, in your darkest hours, you go, ‘Wow, there are actually people from all over the world that appreciate what I did with that character’.”
Personally, I’m a big fan of Han’s character in the franchise and would absolutely recommend that you check out Better Luck Tomorrow as well as it’s a cracking little movie, and I’m delighted to see him back… I just cannot wait to see how they explain it though.
Are you guys Fast and Furious fans? Are you excited for the return of Han? Let me know all your thoughts…
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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