"KEEP BUSTIN'."

We demanded it, we got it: the return of Sean Boswell

Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. This summer, when FURIOUS 6’s mid-credits sequence caught up with the Han’s-death scene from THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT three movies ago, it created opportunity for what many of us had been hoping for for years: bringing back Sean Boswell, the redneck kid who was transplanted to Tokyo and became their new king of street racing (under the tutelage of Han and with the blessing of Sonny Chiba). But in all the exciting FAST AND FURIOUS 7 casting stories we’ve heard (along with the great returning cast they’ve added Jason Statham, Kurt Russell and Tony God Damn Jaa, plus a cameo by Ronda Rousey) Black was never mentioned, and I gave up hoping that the producers agreed with us that this was important.

But they do! Deadline reports the triumphant news that Black “has signed a deal that calls for his character to become a regular in the series and (get this…) “he will be part of at least the next three installments.”

THEY ARE PLANNING A WHOLE NEW SEAN BOSWELL TRILOGY, PEOPLE

One thing that could be potentially funny, it seems like they will need to begin with Dom coming to Tokyo looking for the man who blew up Han, or at least immediately after those events. So Sean should still be a high school student… but the movie will actually be coming out 8 years after TOKYO DRIFT, and Black is 30 now! I hope they make him wear the same clothes. The poor guy.

Now let’s use The Secret to get a Bow-Wow-in-Hulkmobile cameo.

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27 Responses to “We demanded it, we got it: the return of Sean Boswell”

  1. As I said in the FAST FIVE thread, I can’t say I missed Lucas Black at all, but I’m happy for all the Driftamaniacs. I never thought about the fact that he’s a 30 year old teen now, that’s pretty funny.

    I’m more interested in Diesel’s comment that F&F8 will be inspired by ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.

  2. What does he look like today? I mean, he wouldn’t be the first actor who plays a teen, despite being WAAAAAAAAAY too old for that shit, so maybe it works.

  3. I seriously cannot share the excitement for such mundane news.

  4. All we need now is Eva Mendes to return and all will be well in the world.

    I’ve said it before, but that woman has some damn fine crime movie credentials: Training Day, We Own The Night, Bad Lieutenant, The Place Beyond the Pines.

  5. “Next three installments”?… ohhhh no no no. Fuck that. Just do one more & call it a day.

  6. I never got the hype over TOKYO DRIFT, but Lucas Black made for an interesting and offbeat leading man. It’ll be fun to see how he plays off of the other characters as the outsider of the group.

  7. I can see him developing a protege/mentor relationship with Vin Diesel, which in turn leads to some weird yet barely perceptible homoerotic tension between Diesel and Walker (the old “I can’t believe you’re leaving me for a younger man” conundrum).

    I like Lucas Black. He’s not the best actor out there, but there’s something very genuine and forthright about him. Gotta give Billy Bob Thornton beaucoup credit for spotting it early on.

  8. I’m hype. If it wasn’t for TOKYO DRIFT I would’ve never given this franchise another shot because I really didn’t like the first 2. But lo and behold it ended up finally delivering everything I wanted from this franchise in the first place (characters that had personality and weren’t just bland and generic, interesting car culture and scenery, lots of sports car stunts & races). It had no pretenses about being some action thriller or buddy cop movie like the first 2 and just went out there and had some fun which was quite refreshing for this franchise. It was like SKI SCHOOL but with cars.

    It made me a believer and the only other movies in the franchise I like aside from it are 5 and 6 which are the best of the lot (no pun). So I’m pretty glad to finally see a true follow up to it come about. Only disappointment is that Justin Lin himself doesn’t get to sequelize his baby.

  9. Amazing Larry – ‘“Next three installments”?… ohhhh no no no. Fuck that. Just do one more & call it a day.’

    Same thing was said about 5 and 6’s announcement after the surprise success of part 4 and we all know how those turned out. I say if they find a way to keep things fresh bring em on. Especially since they seem to be adding new faces and thusly new dynamics to the series anyway so it wouldn’t really feel too derivative.

    As far as the age thing is concerned. Wasn’t the 4th one supposed to take place not too long after the first 2 movies? I’m not 100% sure because I could never make it through that movie to this day no matter how much I try to watch it but I remember reading the chronology was something like that. So if people could suspend their disbelief enough to buy a 7 year older Vin Diesel and Paul Walker as being around the same age they were in the first movie I’m sure the same could be done with Lucas Black.

  10. I pretty much disliked #3 from the off, and the main reason was Lucas Black’s leading man. Basically a big talker with nothing at all to back it up. At least the characters in “Fast and Furious 1” whatever it’s called were grown-ups.

    Having said that… now that Black’s character has actually learnt something, he may be a lot more bearable. I still don’t know if this manchild has what it takes to hang with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, but I’m not completely opposed to this idea.

  11. I’m still waiting to find out JA Rule is the mastermind behind all this.

  12. Paul – Well after TD, he would probably think hey I pulled that shit off I deserve respect. Diesel and Walker roll their eyes, and list the crazy shit they’ve gone through. I agree with Larry, I could totally see Diesel developing a mentorship/surrogather-father relationship with the Black character.

    Broddie – Hollywood is now following the Marvel method with franchises and interlocking continuity and outlining sequels in advance, but F&TF by strange luck and accident were already doing their own version before Marvel. Technically they began that shit before Marvel did, if we accept TOKYO DRIFT as the startpoint. #5 was their AVENGERS (coming out a year before AVENGERS), your all-star movie of talents from the previous films and their own little worlds crossing over together.

    Why exactly did they set the recent entries before TOKYO DRIFT anyway? The only reason I can think of is that Lin simply wanted to work with the actor who played Han again, even though he was toast. Are there any other reasons why exactly or this was just another pleasant accident?

  13. This is cool news and a great addition to an already excellent cast. I hope Tony Jaa has a substantial role in the film.

    Fred that would be hilarious if JA Rule was revealed as the evil mastermind. The cast could use the addition of another musician/rapper. DMX would be a better choice but who knows where his head is at these days. He might have his hands full wrestling his own personal demons.

    Speaking of awesome casting news, I am not sure how it missed my radar but I saw that Marko Zaror is in MACHETTE KILLS. I wonder when he is going to get recruited by either the Fast & Furious or Expendables franchises?

  14. Charles, you probably forgot Ja Rule was actually in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS!

    Kinda nice that everyone sort of accepts TOKYO DRIFT as a beloved high point for the series. It was the least successful but it is now the center of continuity and most people who mention it like it, and have wanted Lucas Black back. It is also a prime example of retroactively improving a previous entry with the sequels. All the Han backstory makes TOKYO DRIFT better now.

  15. Great news. But if they want to do three more parts I hope they find a way to resurrect Han. He wasn’t the most charismatic character in the movies, but the knowledge of his impending death made me care about him more than I expected. Thinking about it, his death in the exploding car was very similar to Letty’s »death scene«, so maybe there’s a chance. And speaking of that, at least I couldn’t clearly see Gisele’s death in FURIOS 6.

    This is definitely mid-credits material for FURIOS 8.

  16. »FURIOUS«. Sorry. Too much alcohol.

  17. Andreas – you’re out of luck and I think its simply due to the reason why those 2 characters (plus the Brazil cop girl from #5 who was barely in #6) were written out: Character economics. FAST 6 was crowded enough as it was and thus a reason why the Spanish-speaking Laurel & Hardy pair (I forgot their names) didn’t come back for #6. But will they come back for #7? With the slots opening up and Black hired, yeah its possible. I hope they come back.

  18. As much as I understand and respect the resurrection of Letty after watching FURIOUS SIX, I like to keep deaths permanant and not using some kind of bullshit excuses of bringimg back characters. Letty´s reappearence is still a sore spot for me, but I am still gald her amnesia was not magically resolved at the end of six at least.

    A death should still mean something.It should be permanent to actually mean something. I do not take lightly on re-writing shit like that for franchises.

  19. Shoot: I still get a chuckle imagining you angrily cursing out the writers for recklessly toying with established F&F canon. I read (some) superhero comics so I get as annoyed as anybody with “shocking” deaths that are immediately retconned out of existence, but those sort of ridiculous twists just seem to fit in this series. The laws of man, god and physics are plenty malleable in the Furiverse, why should death be the exception?

  20. Rodriguez came back because she’s buddies with Diesel, who wanted her back, and he’s both the franchise star and one of the franchise’s producers. Her coming back was inevitable under such circumstances. (Though give Riddick credit, he pitched her coming back to his Facebook/Twiter followers, asking them if they wanted her back. Their response added more ammo to his cause. Seriously how many stars know how to use Social Media to their will as much as the Iron Giant?)

  21. I guess I’m always the contrarian. I find a character death to be such a weak play for dramatic stakes that I’d resent it even if it were permanent. It makes me much happier that the series goes with it. It’s a movie so if they want someone back, they’re back. In fact, it was a mistake to “kill”‘Letty so let’s fix it.

    I’m sorry, I’m just too meta at this point. I can’t see a character death as anything more than a dramatic crutch. But Shoot, you’ll be happy Han really is dead. They had their chance to pull him out of the fire. They didn’t.

  22. You guys seem to care more about these “characters” than the makers of the franchise. ;-)

    I sort of like Paul Walker in these, though he gets very little to do other than driving, and Diesel is totally wooden in his role (it seems to get worse with every installment; I much prefer him as Riddick). Yes, I watch them all for the action scenes, which only seem to get better and better, but most of the dialogue/exposition makes me cringe and fast forward, it’s as clichéd as it gets. I was glad they sort of turned things around with part 5, but still they could spend a little more $$ on the script for enhancing dialogue and plot, trash one less car instead.

    Mathias

  23. I think the DOM character is Vin Diesel at his most boring. He gets sleepier with each movie.

    I only liked Walker in 2 FAST because he’s such a giggly goofball in that one.

    Tokyo Drift is one of the better F&F movies because it has the best racing scenes and a nice Karate Kid vibe.

  24. Paul Walker shot an action movie here in South Africa called Vehicle 19. No idea if it’s any good (probably not), but I’m happy he still tries for a career outside the F&F world.

    Hey, you guys should check out the trailer for SA crime movie iNumber Number. It’s looks pretty damn good and has been getting great review from people attending the Toronto Film Festival. Would be nice to have another good local movie other than Tsotsi.

  25. The Fast and the Furious has become my new Lord of the Rings where it’s the only movie I actually follow the lead up to. It’s weird that it’s quietly becoming a bigger deal than The Expendables.

    One thing I’m slightly worried about is Ronda Rousey. Boy, she’s just the worst. I’m a new-ish MMA fan, and she’s the only person I dislike more than Chael Sonnen (besides Dana White, because fuck that guy) and I hope she doesn’t get much screen time in the Fast and Furious. She’s really awful.

    You know how a badass dude in a movie is just badass because he’s quiet and strong and sincere? Now imagine Michael Scott trying to be like that person. It suddenly becomes tough-guy catch phrases and insincere posturing, with a health dose of white trash. That’s Ronda Rousey.

    But, yeah, I’m glad Lucas Black is back. Tokyo Drift is really great and I liked him in the role.

  26. I like Rousey, but I read her part referred to as a cameo somewhere, so you might not have to worry too much.

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