The Fast and Furious movie franchise is action-packed on and off screen!

If you like car chases, street races, and other things high-octane, there’s nothing better to watch than the Fast & Furious franchise. We were introduced to its world way back in 2001 with the release of the film The Fast and the Furious. Here, actor Vin Diesel plays the role of Dominic Toretto, an underground street racer that the Los Angeles Police Department takes interest in. And that is exactly how Toretto comes to meet Paul Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner. O’Connor is a cop who was sent to get Toretto. However, in the end, the two form a lasting bond and this becomes more evident in the franchise’s succeeding films.

Since then, the Fast & Furious franchise has grown to include nine films with two more slated for release this year and in 2021. At the same time, the franchise also inspired the release of the recent spin-off, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

And as we wait for the release of the upcoming F9: The Fast Saga, we thought it would be a great idea to go over some behind-the-scenes secrets from the franchise. Check out what we found:

15. In The Beginning, Timothy Olyphant Was Being Eyed To Play Dominic Toretto

During an interview with Cinema Blend, producer Neil H. Moritz recalled, “The studio said, ‘If you can get Timothy Olyphant to play that role, we will greenlight the movie… The luckiest thing that ever happened to us is Tim Olyphant turned us down. He’s a great actor. In fact, I’m curious to see what that movie would have been”.

14.Following Paul Walker’s Death, The Cast Was In Agreement To Finish Filming Fast & Furious 7

Actor Paul Walker tragically died in November 2013 during a break from filming “Furious 7″. Nonetheless, the cast chose to finish the film. In a featurette of the film, writer/executive producer Chris Morgan explained, “We all got together and we were very honest and looked at each other and said, ‘What would he want?’ That was the big question. Do you finish it? And everyone believed, from the bottom of their hearts, that he would want it”.

13.W Motors Built Some Lykan Hypersport Replicas For The Franchise

If you could recall, the film featured an incredible Lykan Hypersport car. The price tag on this car is a whopping $3.4 million. Hence, it wasn’t practical to use a real one. As McCarthy told Top Gear, “W Motors built us six replicas in their factory, using fibreglass instead of carbon fibre.” He added, “We really did jump them. That’s why we needed six. Typically what you see on screen is mostly what’s actually happening”.

12.Gal Gadot Was Cast In Fast & Furious Partly Because She Attended A Bond Movie Casting

When Gal Gadot auditioned for a ‘Bond girl’ role, she readily admitted that she wasn’t ready. Upon walking into the audition, she recalled saying, “Listen. I’m not an actress. I just want to be fair with you”. However, she still made quite an impression. While speaking with Insider, Gadot recalled, “One thing led to the other. The same casting director remembered me from the Bond movie. She cast me for ‘Fast and Furious,’ and here I am”.

11.Vin Diesel Made The Tokyo Drift Cameo To Acquire The Rights To Riddick

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Looking to recharge the series, the studio wanted to use his brief return in Tokyo Drift to signal he would be back center stage in a fourth movie. Diesel agreed, but instead of an acting fee, he demanded the studio give him and his One Race production company rights to the Riddick character”.

10.Gal Gadot Did Her Own Stunts In The Franchise

During an interview with the media, Gadot recalled having a conversation with director Justin Lin saying, “He was like ‘Ok, Gal, you’re going to have a LOT of action in this one. Do you want to have a stunt girl, or should we-’ I was like ‘NO. I want to do it by myself”. If you must know, the actress spent some time with the Israel Defense Forces where she rendered service.

9.Vin Diesel Said Charlize Theron Enjoyed Their On-screen Kiss, But She Remembers It Differently…

In the film “The Fate of the Furious”, Diesel ends up sharing an onscreen kiss with Charlize Theron, who plays the villainous Cipher. While speaking with USA Today, Diesel remarked, “Do I know she enjoyed it? Oh my God, yeah. A kiss cannot lie; lips don’t lie. No, they didn’t.” Meanwhile, Theron told Ellen DeGeneres, “That’s what I was kissing, and he’s literally going around saying that I had the best time of my life … It’s insane!”.

8.The Cars Featured In The Abu Dhabi Sand Scene Were All Privately Owned

As you may recall, there was a scene in “Furious 7” where you see Dom and his gang cruising in some of the hottest rides around. These include a McLaren 12C, Bugatti Veyron, and Ferrari 458. McCarthy told Top Gear, “Anytime you do anything like this you don’t want just one of each, you need at least two. So we had two Bugattis, two Ferraris, two P1s, etc. All owner-sourced”.

7.Luke Evans’ Appearance In Fate Of The Furious Was Kept A Secret

For some reason, Luke Evans preferred to downplay his involvement in “The Fate of the Furious”. During an interview with Yahoo, Evans only remarked, “People come around from comas, so who knows? He’s in a military hospital because he’s the most wanted man in the world, but he’s got a very powerful brother, and he’s now got a mum as well, who’s played by Helen Mirren”.

6.The Rock Is Reportedly Not Happy With Diesel’s Producing Approach And It’s Lead To Some Serious Beef

According to TMZ, “We’re told The Rock has butted heads with Vin during the production, in part because V.D. is a producer and has made decisions that didn’t sit well with the former wrestling champ”. At one point, Johnson even went on social media, claiming that his male co-stars were too “chicken s***” to confront him”. The two allegedly had a secret meeting to settle their differences.

5.In Fate Of The Furious, Tyrese Gibson Could Barely See While Shooting Scenes On Ice

While speaking with Stunts Unlimited, stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos recalled, “[Tyrese] literally couldn’t even see. He’d sit there and we had to have hand signals and everything. He was an amazing trooper on that. He didn’t like the cold — he made sure we knew that. But he did it, and did it as many times as he had to do it. He even offered to stay another day if he had to”.

4.For Furious 7, The Movie Did Drop Cars From A Plane

In the film, you may recall a sequence where Dom and his crew decided to parachute their cars from the back of a cargo plane. And it turns out, the sequence was not CGI. Producer Neal Moritz explained to the New York Post, “We really wanted to rely on CGI as little as possible. We did drop cars out of planes”.

3.Vin Diesel Allegedly Removed A Scene Between Jason Statham And Dwayne Johnson, Because He Didn’t Like The Idea Of A Spin-Off

This cut scene is described as a “tag” to the story and it featured both Johnson and Jason Statham’s characters. One insider told The Wrap, “They had early screenings where Johnson and Statham popped so much on-screen together that they were looking at doing a spinoff”. The report also noted, “When executive producer Samantha Vincent, Diesel’s sister, learned of the scene and told Diesel, he became enraged, according to the insiders”.

2.The Late Paul Walker Inspired John Cena’s Casting

During an interview with Cinema Blend, Diesel recalled, “[Cena] came to meet me at my gym right before we were shipping out to make the movie, and I put a post on social media that said, ‘Thank you Pablo,’ because I felt like someone had brought me the right person to play Jakob”.

1.New Dodge V8 Or Chevy V8 Engines Were Used On Fast and Furious 6 Cars

For the film “Fast & Furious 6” car coordinator Dennis McCarthy explained, “We don’t have that luxury of waiting for the car’s original drivetrain to perish and then fit new ones”. He also told Top Gear, “Dodge developed an engine package for us based on the SRT8 motor with a standalone wiring harness, so for this film we used some of those engines, and a Chevy V8 like before. This time they’re pushing out around 530bhp”.