Warning: Some SPOILERS lie ahead for F9: The Fast Saga
Vin Diesel reveals he has tasked the writers room of the Fast & Furious franchise to develop a spin-off film focused on Charlize Theron's Cipher. Theron's cyberterrorist made her debut in the action series in 2017's The Fate of the Furious as she blackmailed Diesel's Dominic Toretto to assist her in hijacking a nuclear submarine and trigger a nuclear war. After escaping at the conclusion of the film, Cipher returned in the newly released F9: The Fast Saga to take revenge on Dom and his family with the help of his estranged brother and master thief/assassin, Jakob.
Despite being ten films in, the Fast & Furious franchise has shown no signs of slowing down as F9 helped reinvigorate the box office with a major $70 million debut, the highest-grossing weekend since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters in December 2019. The future for the series is also looking bright as there are two final mainline installments in the works alongside a sequel to the Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham-fronted Hobbs & Shaw and a female-led spin-off. But now, it looks as though the roster of potential expansions is growing.
Theron recently sat down with Variety to discuss her latest outing as the antagonist in F9, in which she revealed the script for The Old Guard sequel has been completed. In addition to the Netflix follow-up, the report reveals that Diesel has asked the writers room to get to work on a solo film centered on Theron's cyberterrorist. Despite confirming this development, the Oscar-winning actress and franchise star/producer didn't offer any further details on the project.
Since its beginning, the Fast & Furious franchise has seen plenty of villains come and go, with some such as the Shaw brothers maintaining a solid impact past their films, while others such as 2 Fast's drug lord, Carter Verone, proving relatively forgettable. While Fate of the Furious may not be anyone's favorite in the franchise, Theron's performance as Cipher did establish her as one of the better members of Dom's rogues gallery. Given she escaped once again at the end of F9, the door is certainly wide open for how she could return to the fold in the future.
That being said, with her story being so closely tied to Dom and his crew's at this point, it is hard to imagine she doesn't act as an ongoing antagonist for the final two installments of the Fast & Furious franchise. But given no antagonist outside of Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw has been given a deeper exploration into their past, it would prove interesting to see Cipher's past further spotlighted. For now, fans can at least head back to the big screen to catch her latest outing in F9.
Source: Variety