While The Fast and the Furious is undoubtedly a box office juggernaut, few would compare it to J. R. R. Tolkien's 70-year-old fantasy classic The Lord of the Rings.
Well, Vin Diesel has gone and done just that.
The actor recently spoke about being in the long-running film franchise at an event for the latest instalment, Fast X. You can watch the new trailer below:
Despite it being the tenth entry in the series (yes, there are ten of them!), Diesel is still keen to make more of the films and compared them to the landmark fantasy series in an off-the-cuff moment on the red carpet.
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When asked about whether he struggled to make the films as he got older, the 55-year-old laughed it off as he spoke about the physical demanding role.
“You know what gets harder? The work off-screen. The thinking, the expanding… there's a reason why Tolkien stopped writing after a while,” he told Variety.
The actor continued: “It's so hard to continue mythologies. Nobody thinks about it in that context, but it's real.”
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While many laughed at the comment initially, the interconnectedness of the films and the characters mean that the Fast franchise isn’t that dissimilar to the fantasy epic.
Diesel has been a key figure in the film series, having played Dominic Toretto since the first film back in 2001 and has had a lot of creative input to the franchise as a producer.
When asked whether he believe that Fast was the ‘Lord of the Rings of action movies’, Diesel told the interviewer: “Well said, from your mouth to God's ears, it's so true.”
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Though he’s compared the film series to a fantasy epic, Diesel wants an actor from another major franchise to join the Fast universe – Robert Downey Jr.
Diesel told Variety that the Marvel actor would make the perfect villain for the next film, as an evil entrepreneur hell bent on removing cars from the road.
“Without telling you too much about what happens in the future, there’s a character who is the antithesis of Dom who is promoting AI and driverless cars and a philosophy that with that goes your freedom,” Diesel told Variety.
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However, Vin Diesel did reveal he is yet to pitch his idea to the Iron Man actor.
In the meantime, another superhero will be joining the Fast franchise Aquaman actor, Jason Momoa.
He will appear as Dante, who will be the villain in Fast X, which will be released later this year on May 19.
Topics: Fast and Furious, Jason Momoa, Vin Diesel, Celebrity, Film and TV
Katherine Sidnell