Another day, another shake-up in the Fast and Furious family. THR reports that Universal has tapped Kin screenwriter Daniel Casey to pen Fast and Furious 9, making him the first new screenwriter to join the franchise in over a decade. Chris Morgan has written every Fast screenplay since 2006’s underrated third installment The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He crafted the billion-dollar franchise into a surprise shared universe of sorts, tying together disparate characters from the first three films and expanding the scope to an international espionage adventures.

Morgan hasn’t left the franchise behind, however, he’ll still pen the script for the upcoming Hobbes and Shaw spinoff, focused on the fan-favorite characters played by Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. (Well, Shaw's a fan-favorite if you can forgive him for Han, which frankly, I cannot.) Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2 director David Leitch is set to direct and the film is slated for 2019.

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Image via Universal Pictures

In addition to the sci-fi drama Kin, which comes from Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy and lands in theaters on August 31, Casey also wrote the script for The Heavy, a Bad Robot project described as a subversive superhero movie. According to the THR report, that script helped land him the gig on Fast 9. Casey also previously re-wrote 10 Cloverfield Lane from the original non-Cloverfield script.

Justin Lin, who directed four Fast films including the franchise best, Fast Five, is set to return for Fast and Furious 9. He will also direct Fast and Furious 10. Vin Diesel is set to star and with the film scheduled to hit theaters in April 2020. That’s one year later than expected, after Universal pushed the sequel to make space for the Hobbes and Shaw spinoff.

For more of the latest on the Fast and Furious films, check out the links below.

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