Fast & Furious 9 is coming to theatres in 2021, but will the upcoming installment see Luke Evans’ villain Owen Shaw join Dom’s family? Last seen in 2017’s The Fate of the Furious, Dracula Untold actor Luke Evans’ Owen Shaw was a villainous thorn in the side of the franchise’s heroes for two solid installments of the high-octane film series. He made Fast & Furious 6 a memorably thrilling affair before reappearing in Furious 7 (although he was comatose, and as such less of an active threat, in that 2015 sequel_.
Fans are eager to know everything about Fast & Furious 9 - even more so since its release was delayed by an entire year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many details of the movie's plot are still mostly shrouded in mystery, but former villain Owen Shaw would be a perfect addition to Dom’s crew for the upcoming film. Now that Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw is off gallivanting around the world with Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs in their spin-off series and the Shaws are aligned with Dom’s crew, does this mean that Owen might be able to join the “good” (well, good-ish) guys in Fast and Furious 9?
Owen Shaw was a well-loved villain and Evans made a stellar foil to the cast in his earlier franchise appearances. The return of his villain wouldn’t be the most unexpected appearance in the Fast and Furious franchise (that dubious honor has got to go to R+B hitmaker Rita Ora’s hard-to-explain Fast & Furious 6 cameo). It also wouldn’t be a surprise to see Evans appear in another blockbuster, as the versatile actor has shown up in everything from Beauty and the Beast to The Hobbit series, to Clash of the Titans and Murder Mystery, to… Look, the point is he’s often found in big-budget movies.
It’s also not unheard of for characters in the Fast & Furious films to reappear later on in the franchise, even if only in minor roles. Plenty of actors have left the series only to reappear unexpectedly later on to the delight of fans. Series star Vin Diesel had a cameo in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and his career was even busier than Evans' at the time. But if Evans' character is to return, he really does need to do so as part of Dom’s crew this time around.
By the time Fate of the Furious rolled around, Owen Shaw was last seen helping save Dom’s son, so a tense team-up would make for some perfect character progression. Another villainous turn for Shaw would be predictable, and Fast & Furious 9 cannot afford that. The franchise needs to do all it can to avoid cheap and disappointing fake-outs like Letty’s death. Fans are already saying that Han’s promised return must be more than another trick, so any appearance from Owen Shaw will come under similar scrutiny. But the Fast and Furious filmmakers are more than up to this task of making fire-forged friends out of former foes, as evidenced by Hobbs and Shaw’s transformation from sworn enemies to unlikely partners.
