Fast and Furious 9 is introducing Dom and Mia Toretto’s long-lost brother Jakob as a new villain, adding some interesting wrinkles to the characters’ backstories. The trailer footage released so far shows that Jakob hates his older brother, even accusing Dom of turning his back on him years before. As a self-proclaimed family man, it seems strange that Dom could have done something so harmful to his own brother; however, Dom’s past gives a few clues as to what could have happened.
The Fast and Furious franchise is a story about family, albeit one that also includes supercars, terrorists, hacker gangs, and submarines. Dom is the center of a chosen family that grows ever larger over the course of the films, but his focus on family comes from his childhood – specifically, his relationship with his father. The introduction of an estranged Toretto sibling in F9 is intriguing because of how it clashes with Dom’s espoused values. After all, if Dom never turns his back on family, how come he’s never mentioned Jakob in the past? And why didn’t Mia ever say anything?
These questions will surely be answered in F9: The Fast Saga, but the existing films have already hinted at what may have gone down between Dom, Mia and Jakob. There’s a lot that’s still unknown about the Torettos’ past – including what happened to Dom and Mia’s mother – but some important details have already been revealed. Here’s how Dom may have turned his back on Jakob, and what Jakob’s fate could be in The Fast Saga.
Who Is Jakob Toretto?
In the F9 trailers, Jakob makes a few revealing comments to Dom hinting at their backstory and relationship. Jakob is the younger brother – possibly still older than Mia – and he references being in Dom’s shadow throughout their childhood. He also uses Dom’s famous line about not turning his back on family against him, claiming that Dom did in fact turn his back on his own brother.
Clearly, whatever caused the falling-out between Jakob and the rest of the Toretto family was significant. His vendetta seems to be against Dom specifically, as he and Mia haven’t interacted in any of the trailer footage, but they likely aren’t on great terms either. Neither Mia nor Dom ever mentions Jakob prior to the events of F9, even at times when they talk about their childhood. None of the other characters who knew the Torettos as kids like Letty or Vince ever mentioned a third sibling either.
Obviously, those discrepancies can be attributed to retconning, as Jakob wasn’t conceived in the story until the lead-up to Fast and Furious 9. But now that he’s here, all those times when he wasn’t mentioned are canonical exclusions. Many different characters chose to ignore his very existence for years, and F9 will have to deal with that reality if it plans on making Jakob’s return at all impactful. So what would make a person not only turn away from their family, but turn toward a life of crime and be completely excommunicated from their own past in the process?
How Dom Turned His Back On Jakob
The answer to Jakob’s estrangement is likely connected to the Toretto family’s tragic past. In The Fast and the Furious, when Brian and Dom are first getting to know each other, Dom shares the story of how his father died. A stock car racer of significant skill and minor fame, Dom’s dad was killed in a brutal crash during a race. Dom was devastated, as he and his father were incredibly close. Soon afterward, he saw the driver who caused the wreck and, in a blind fit of rage, nearly beat him to death with a torque wrench. He was subsequently convicted on assault charges and served two years in prison.
If Dom’s father was even half as caring as he and Mia have said, there’s no way he wouldn’t have at least tried to have a positive relationship with Jakob as well. However, if Jakob and Dom were already on the outs before the crash, the death of their father could have been the final thing that fully pushed them apart. Since Dom and Mia’s mom is never mentioned, it’s presumed that she wasn’t in the picture much for one reason or another. That means that their family would have struggled a lot after their father’s death, with the kids – barely grown – left to run the family business and take care of one another.
Of course, Dom couldn’t do any of those things from a jail cell. Letting his own anger and selfishness get the best of him led to his imprisonment, pulling him away from his family when they needed him the most. That’s never been a point of contention between him and Mia, but it could certainly have been the last straw in a decaying relationship with Jakob. Surely there’s more to the story, including how Jakob became a super criminal, but when he says Dom has turned his back on his family before, he’s not entirely wrong.
Will Jakob Toretto Be Redeemed In Fast & Furious 9?
No matter what new details about Jakob emerge in F9, it’s almost certain that Dom and Mia share partial responsibility for his turn to the dark side. That’s a fact they’ll have to accept and contend with just to survive the events of the new film. The bigger question is whether or not they’ll be able to help redeem Jakob in F9 and help him properly rejoin the family.
The answer, in all likelihood, is yes. Fast and Furious has often redeemed antagonistic characters and brought them into the fold, including Gisele Yashar (Gal Gadot) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). Even Dom himself was once a far less heroic figure, as he spent most of the first film as a two-bit thief. There’s plenty of precedent for villains to become heroes in the series, and that chance is only amplified by Jakob being a Toretto.
Jakob could also fill a notable gap in the series’ roster. After Brian was effectively written out of the story following Paul Walker’s death, Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs character was the natural choice as Dom’s new number two. However, that plan fell apart when onset feuding between Johnson and Vin Diesel resulted in the former being ousted from future core films. Jakob can now fill the role in Hobbs’ stead, and as Dom’s actual brother, he’s set up even better to do so. That is, assuming he, Dom and Mia can work through their issues with each other by the end of Fast and Furious 9.
