The Fast and Furious franchise is officially sweeping up the momentum for Han and by making #JusticeForHan an official Fast & Furious 9 hashtag. On Friday, the lengthy and action-packed trailer of the ninth Fast & Furious installment dropped. The story seems to revolve around a battle between Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his brother, Jakob Toretto, who is played by former WWE champion John Cena. In addition to new faces like Cena, the franchise seemed to live up to its unofficial tradition of bringing back old characters like Mia Toretto (Jordan Brewster), but arguably no return was bigger than the character believed to be dead, Han Lue (Sung Kang).
The character of Han debuted and seemingly died in the third film in the franchise, Tokyo Drift. However, with tweaks to the timeline, and stating Tokyo Drift took place years later, Han was able to appear in Fast and Furious, Fast Five, and Furious 6. At the end of Furious 6, we found out that his death was because of the new villain, Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw. Although, in Fast 8 and the recent spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw, Deckard has clearly become one of the good guys. This shift in Deckard’s character and the Fast family accepting him into their team led to an outcry and a new push from the #JusticeForHan hashtag. Now, not only are fans of the franchise getting Han back, but F9 is also taking ownership of the popular hashtag.
After releasing a poster of Han, and using the slogan “Justice Is Coming,” F9 have officially got on board with fans' #JusticeForHan movement. Now, when people add #JusticeForHan to a tweet, there is an official F9 logo beside that tweet, showing that the hashtag has officially become a part of F9’s social media promotions. It’s another step in this push of Han’s return to the franchise.
The fact it has become an official F9 hashtag only makes sense considering how the franchise has seemingly given in to the fans' demands regarding Han, and potentially giving his character and the Fast and Furious’s long story arc more clarity. However, in a video Diesel posted on his Instagram back in October, director Justin Lin could be seen wearing a “Justice For Han” t-shirt. So it’s quite possible this hashtag takeover was planned sometime in advance.
How or why Han returns in F9 is unknown, and it is a bit of a head-scratcher for fans, as well as a topic for some jokes. It will be interesting to see how this return is justified, and whether or not this leads to an eventual collision with Statham’s Deckard Shaw. But until the film hits theaters on May 22, fans will have to think of their own theories about how another family member has returned in the almost two-decade-long franchise.
