Tyrese Gibson recently shared details about how Paul Walker fought to bring his character, Roman Pearce, back into the Fast & Furious franchise with Fast Five. Gibson's character first appeared in 2 Fast 2 Furious alongside Walker and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, another mainstay of the franchise. Roman was established as a childhood friend of Walker's Brian O'Conner, who had a past stealing cars. The film saw Roman and O'Conner teaming up to take down a drug lord named Carter Verone. After that, however, the franchise saw fit to move on without Gibson for a time.
The following two installments, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious, did not include Gibson's Roman. After Fast & Furious, the franchise saw potential in a rebranding of the series as it stepped away from racing and leaned more heavily into massive action movie territory, which started with Fast Five. However, as the creative team put together the fifth installment, there were still no plans for Roman to return, but Walker was campaigning for it.
On EW's Binge podcast (via CinemaBlend), Gibson discussed how Walker worked to bring Roman back for the fifth film saying, "it was a fight." Gibson details tension with the studio on how Roman would fit into the franchise moving forward and that things only turned around because Walker had his back. After sitting down with Vin Diesel, Gibson convinced them that he would be an asset to the franchise. Check out what Gibson had to say:
"Paul knew that there was a bit of an obstacle that we had to get through in order for us to all band together for Fast Five. I mean, I get emotional when I think about this guy; for damn near three movies, he kept begging and pleading and trying to talk to the studio and directors and Vin, ‘Yo, we got to get Tyrese back.’ I finally came back for Five, and it was a fight, man. I think there was some type of spoken but yet unspoken tension in and around Roman Pearce, and where do I fit in? And I think after hanging out with a Vin a few times before we did Five, he realized quickly that I’m more of an asset, and there’s way more upside to what I’m bringing to the franchise over it ever even remotely being considered competition or anything that anybody should be worried about."
Gibson continued by detailing that he needed to ensure his character would not detract from others, mainly Diesel's Dominic Toretto. He said, "If Vin ever does it again, if you become this carbon copy of Vin, then Vin is going to be like, 'Well, why would I ever want to do a movie with a dude who basically came in with deep voices and just all of the things that kind of represent the blueprint of Diesel?'" As fans of the franchise can attest, Roman and Toretto are very different characters, where Toretto is more serious, and Roman is more comedic, which was likely only furthered in Fast Five and beyond, given Gibson's comments.
Roman has now appeared in every Fast & Furious installment from Fast Five onward, including F9, currently in theaters. Roman has become a favorite character known for his humorous quips and banter. While it's hard to imagine the franchise without Roman, the world has Walker to thank for ensuring his place with Dom's crew. Fast & Furious 10 is already in the works, and Gibson's Roman is likely to return as most fans wouldn't want a Fast & Furious film without him.
Source: EW Binge podcast (via CinemaBlend)