While F9 is poised to be one of the biggest films of the year when it hits theaters this summer, director Justin Lin is hard at work plotting the franchise’s endgame. Lin has been with Fast & Furious since the second film, Tokyo Drift, and through helming Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6 he helped evolve the series from a mid-level hit to a global phenomenon. Other directors stepped in to helm Furious 7 and Fate of the Furious while Lin worked on things like True Detective and Star Trek Beyond, but when Vin Diesel started thinking of the conclusion of the series, he knew Lin was the right person to bring this franchise home. So not only did Lin direct F9, but he’ll conclude the franchise with a two-film ending of Fast and Furious 10 and Fast and Furious 11.

So when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub spoke with Lin recently for an early press day for F9, he asked the filmmaker about approaching the end of the franchise and whether F9 ends on a cliffhanger to lead into the two-part finale:

"Usually, when we started, part of our philosophy was that a sequel’s not a given so let’s do whatever we can and really service this chapter, and it worked really well. But I think coming back, and I think for the last ten years, I’ve been talking to Vin on the subject of the end of the saga. It was just something we discussed, and I have to say coming back, this is the first time I’ve allowed myself to say, ‘Okay, well let’s talk about it as the final chapter.’ And we knew that the real estate was going to expand past one film. So it’s been very liberating to work and really allow ourselves to think that way."

Lin added that usually when prepping a F&F movie, he’d have conversations with the actors about their characters, only for those plans to fall by the wayside once they actually made the movie. But with F10 and F11, there’s enough real estate to fit in everything they want:

"This movie could have been six hours if we wanted to because I love all these characters. And I think a lot of times when I sit down with each actor and we talk about the character, it always sucks because so much of what we talk about we never see on screen. So to be able to revisit a lot of these characters, for me, it was so fulfilling. But at the same time I wanted to have more real estate, but I think we were very disciplined. I think part of it for me is to know that we’re not treating this as one film. I mean there’s a lot we’re exploring. I think we’re exploring this idea of sibling rivalry and conflict, family by blood for the first time on [F9]. And to be able to do that but also at the same time bring a lot of these characters back, there’s a lot going on. I feel good talking to you now because I know that we’re talking about it in multi-films as opposed to just one film… It’s definitely very meaty, I’ll tell you that."

Fast and Furious 10 was originally supposed to hit theaters in 2021, but when F9 (originally scheduled for release in 2020) was delayed due to the pandemic, Universal pulled Fast and Furious 10 from its release date and Lin has not yet started production on the two-part finale. But with F9 finally hitting theaters on June 25, 2021, look for things to start ramping up on F10 and F11 later this year.