The Fast & Furious franchise has a growing problem when it comes to its villains, but Jason Momoa's Dante Reyes in Fast X could finally put an end to the annoying trend. The new series villain is the son of Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), who was the millionaire drug lord villain in Fast Five and was killed by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson). Dante is way more theatrical than his father, but is also out for some serious revenge, as he wants to avenge his father's death by going after Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew.

Momoa said of the character, "He’s very sadistic and androgynous and he’s a bit of a peacock… He’s got a lot of issues, this guy. He’s definitely got some daddy issues." The 10th movie in the franchise will be expanding the universe even more with so many new Fast & Furious characters, and based on the trailer and what Momoa has said about the character, Dante Heyes is the most interesting. However, as exciting as the character sounds, he could follow suit and fall into the traps that previous villains have - but he could just as easily break the trend.

Most High-Profile Villains Have Joined Dom’s Crew Except Cipher

The first few Fast & Furious movies that heavily featured street racing had proper villains who haven't returned, such as Johnny Tran (Rick Yune), Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), and Takashi Kamata (Brian Tee). However, ever since Fast Five, there has been something of a trend where villains have been redeemed and joined Dom and his team. Despite some of them being violent and sinister murderers, they always get forgiven and recruited. Cipher (Charlize Theron) is the only exception, as she has seemingly become the series' overarching villain, leaving there no fully viable way of Cipher being redeemed at this point.

Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) was a villain but became a hero in Hobbs & Shaw, and it looks like he'll have a redemption arc in Fast X despite "killing" Han and trying to murder Dom's whole team. While he wasn't an outright villain, Hobbs was the antagonist of Fast Five, as he was hired to track down Dom's crew and stop them at all costs, but he ended up becoming part of the crew. And Jakob, Dom's long-lost brother, was a villain in F9, but he ended up helping Dom at the very end. Every villain played by a major movie star joins Dom's team, and it's becoming predictable and a major problem.

How Jason Momoa’s Dante Reyes Could End The Villain Trend

Dante looks like a fun and theatrical villain whose mind is impossible to change. With this in mind, Fast X could actually break the villain trend for the series, and keep Dante as the bad guy throughout. In many ways, this would benefit the overall movie and franchise, by ensuring audiences aren't able to predict Dante's arc based on the formula seemingly created by previous series villains.

However, Dante could still join Dom’s team after two hours of feuding with them in the movie, or at least help them in some way against Cipher. Indeed, this possibility is unfortunately more likely than him remaining a villain, because Dante is after Dom to avenge his father’s death, but it wasn’t actually Dom who killed him. Hobbs killed Hernan Reyes in Fast Five - and once Dante comes to this realization, he could well end up helping Dom in Fast X.

Source: Variety