Fast and Furious has gotten used to retconning deaths, but there is one dead character that the franchise should never bring back. While the Fast and Furious saga has created a tradition of each installment being bigger than the last one, that increase in budget and action pieces was not followed by an increase in stakes. That has a lot to do with the franchise’s habit of bringing back dead characters, namely Letty and Han, even though their deaths were used as an emotional plot point in Fast & Furious (2009) and Furious 7, which is something that will not always necessarily work.
The first death retcon in the Fast saga had Han return in Fast & Furious (2009) after dying in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. However, that did not actually “revive” the character as the former took place before the events of the latter. Setting Fast & Furious before the events of Tokyo Drift served as a way to have the audience's favorite Han and the long-time Justin Lin collaborator Sung Kang back for at least another movie while also keeping the character’s death intact. At the same time, Fast & Furious surprisingly killed Letty, an event that served as the driving force for the film’s main plot.
The lack of stakes and the chances of any dead character returning are some of the most common criticisms aimed at the Fast and Furious films, even more so considering that this issue coincided with the franchise's transformation into something more silly, unrealistically action-packed. If Dominic Toretto was able to survive a bus rollover or Han could return from a car explosion, then now everything was possible in Fast and Furious. While that certainly fits the tone of the current Fast and Furious movies, to the point it became almost part of the franchise’s charm, there is one character Fast X or Fast 11 should absolutely not bring back – Dominic Toretto’s father, Jack Toretto. No matter how shocking it would be to reveal that Dom’s father is alive, retconning Jack Toretto’s death would hurt Dom Toretto’s entire Fast and Furious story.
Fast & Furious Got Used To Retconning Deaths
Han hanging around with Dominic Toretto’s crew in Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6 seemed like a good enough Tokyo Drift retcon. However, after the “Justice for Han” campaigns and a sense that Fast and Furious was better with Han in it, F9 revealed that the character never actually died. Han had been working with Mr. Nobody all along, and the crash in Tokyo Drift was all part of an act. Eleven years before that, Fast Five’s ending scene revealed that Letty, who audiences had seen crashing a car and getting caught by its explosion in Fast & Furious, was actually alive and working for the enemy. Fast & Furious 6 tried to write a reasonable explanation for it, revealing that Letty managed to crawl out of the car before the explosion. In both cases, Fast and Furious retconned what seemed like absolutely certain deaths in order to have a shocking twist and to bring beloved characters back.
Gisele & Other Dead Fast Characters Could Always Return (And That’s Okay)
The precedent created by Letty and Han’s return made it possible for audiences to theorize about any dead Fast and Furious characters actually being alive. The biggest example is Gal Gadot’s Gisele, who died in Fast & Furious 6 after falling from the top of a car moving at high speed. Fast & Furious 6 never actually showed what happened to Gisele right after it, and it was just assumed by the characters and the audiences that she had died – especially after a big explosion took place. Gisele was an audiences-favorite, and Gal Gadot has grown to become a worldwide movie star, prompting many to ask for Fast and Furious to have “Justice For Gisele” and bring the character back. While that could further cement the idea that there are no stakes in Fast and Furious, at this point, it would not be that much of a big deal for the franchise to bring another dead character back.
Fast & Furious Should Never Bring Dominic Toretto’s Father Back
Bringing back Gal Gadot’s Gisele or someone like The Fast and the Furious’ Jesse would be nothing unusual for Fast and Furious and would fit in the saga’s current tone. However, bringing back Jack Toretto, who died when Dom, Mia, and Jakob were still young, is something that would hurt Dominic Toretto’s entire arc. The death of Dom’s father made Vin Diesel’s character who he is, and it shaped Dom’s life forever. Jack Toretto’s death is what caused Jakob to run away, which F9 proves is the reason why Dominic Toretto values his new family so much.
As big of a plot twist as it would be for Dom Toretto’s father to be alive, such a decision would retroactively hurt all other Fast and Furious movies Vin Diesel’s character was in. Not only that, but the relationship between Dom and Jakob Toretto, a storyline only now added to Fast and Furious, would also lose all of its meaning. Of all potential twists Fast X and 11 could have, Jakob Toretto being alive is definitely not a good one.
