Nobody does it better: How the Fast & Furious franchise is finally being noticed for doing diversity right

So, I think it’s fair to say that one of the biggest things in movies right now is diversity. As it should be.

We have become obsessed with making sure everyone is represented equally in movies – again, as it should be – but sometimes to the point where it becomes, well, madness.

Many studios will virtue signal about how progressive they are, how they’re casting people of colour or females in prominent roles, like this is something they should be celebrated for when, I’ve always said, that’s not how representation should work.

Our society is made up of so many different creeds, colours and sexes, getting on with their lives, mixing with each other without thought, just existing with each other. We don’t jump with joy, screaming when we meet someone of different colour, different sexual persuasion or with something different between our legs… we greet them and just movie on with life.

One franchise that does this better than any other is the Fast & Furious saga.

For years I have loved how this series has main characters who are from all walks of life, each working together – sometimes being the villains – but always just being the characters they play. It’s rarely celebrated or made a big deal off, if ever, and that’s exactly how it should be.

Now, however, in the era of ‘OH MY GOD, LOOK HOW AWESOME WE ARE!” it seems that the suits in Hollywood have finally come to their senses and have realised that there’s just one franchise that’s doing it right.

Comic writer Gail Simone has taken to Twitter to say that she has it on good authority from a Hollywood insider (Simone has a lot of Hollywood experience, working on the DCEU) that things may be about to swerve away from crazy town and straight over to how it should be done city.

“I had a very powerful Hollywood insider say that the success of the Fast and Furious franchise had a bigger effect on movie casts getting diversified than ‘all the social media complaints combined,'” Simone wrote.

“This happened. If he was being hyperbolic I don’t know. But even if it’s just a commonly held belief at the top levels, it’s interesting to consider. It punches [holes] in the beliefs of both conservative and liberal commentators.”

For years I have said that this franchise – the biggest original franchise around right now – should be celebrated for how it treats everyone and represents across the board and it’s great to see that this is finally happening. Look, you don’t have to like the movies, but you have to admire how they do what they do.

“It doesn’t matter what nationality you are. As a member of the audience, you realise you can be a member of the family,” star Vin Diesel has said of the series: “That’s the beautiful thing about how the franchise has evolved.”

Damn right!

Asian Director Justin Lin, who has directed five of the movies in the series so far (six, if you count Better Luck Tomorrow, the official unofficial entry) nails it on the head when he said to Esquire: “Hollywood is supposed to be this enlightened place and there are great people here, sure. But there’s some f@#ked up people here that are just able to use the right buzzwords.

“I’ve always felt like diversity is not me going: ‘I need an Asian for this role.’ It’s like, ‘No man, that’s not what diversity is about.’ It’s about creating an environment to let the best person grab that role. To have the right to say: ‘hey, we had the world come in and we found the right person.’ That’s always been my M.O with Fast. I’m not on a crusade. When you’re excluding people, mathematically, that just doesn’t make sense.”

Indeed, Lin talks about how after the murder of Han by Jason Statham was almost brushed under the carpet in Fast 8 (not directed by Lin), saying it was a bad move: “Han is special. It really made no sense and, as an Asian-American, it kind of did shake me to the core.

“You’re like: ‘Wait, did we just get reduced to a fucking character that you don’t even address? That nobody f@#king cares about anymore? Are we f@#king back to Long Duk Dong s@#t again?”

Reassuringly, the fans of the franchise got behind this and began the #JusticeForHan movement resulted in actor Sung Kang, left, returning for the latest movie… see? Diversity done right.

So, let’s hope more people pay attention to this franchise and how it handles characters’ diversity, treating them like real characters and not tokens for some bizarre back-clapping exercise. Like it’s done in real-life.

It’s really not that difficult.