Here's why a planned solo Fast & Furious movie starring Vin Diesel didn't happen. The success of The Fast And The Furious made Diesel a major star almost instantly, but he famously passed on the sequel due to his dislike of the screenplay. Instead, Diesel focused on other franchises and solo efforts like The Chronicles Of Riddick and A Man Apart, but he eventually found his way back to Dom Toretto when he agreed to a brief cameo in 2006's The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. The lukewarm box-office haul of that outing almost convinced Univeral to pull the plug on the theatrical series and make straight to DVD Fast & Furious sequels instead.
However, the response to Diesel's surprise cameo convinced them to give the franchise one last shot. This proved to be a gamble that paid off, with 2009's Fast & Furious movie reuniting original stars Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster and proving a solid hit. Director Justin Lin's Fast Five pushed the series into a new gear, becoming more of a heist movie with outrageous setpieces and introducing Dwayne Johnson's Hobbs to the series. The Fast & Furious saga is now one of the most profitable franchises in movie history, with Diesel and co set to return for two more outings before the main series wraps up.
Before Fast & Furious served as a reunion for the original crew, there was another plan in mind for the series. In a 2021 interview with Vulture, Diesel recalled series producer Neal Moritz's plan to make a fourth Fast movie that didn't bring back any other characters but Dom for a solo adventure. However, Diesel - who almost had another action franchise with Wheelman - didn't like this idea and revealed the moment he was a producer on the sequel he called Walker to invite him back and the movie developed from there.
Given that the Fast & Furious franchise's key theme is family - which includes redeeming familiar villains like Jason Statham's Shaw - it's odd to picture a solo Dom adventure now. There was such excitement for Diesel's return to the role that made him a star a solo movie likely would have been a success, but Fast & Furious now feels like a precursor to subsequent legacy sequels that reunited the casts of popular franchises for a new outing. This element is likely the one that pushed 2009's Fast & Furious to such success, though a fifth outing could have - in theory - brought back the original cast later on.
Notably, Diesel made it clear in the above interview that a solo Dom Toretto movie could still happen in the future. Given that the movies are getting more and more expensive, Universal might be willing to consider a less costly Dom spin-off after the main Fast & Furious series ends. That said, Diesel's reported behavior on Fast X - which apparently led director Justin Lin to quit - might also convince them to focus on other characters instead.
