'Fast and Furious' News: Netflix Orders Animated Spinoff; Vin Diesel to Take Part
"Fast and Furious" is headed to the animated territory.
In its first project in the expansion of its multi-year deal with DreamWorks Animation Television, Netflix is developing an animated series centered on protagonist Dominic Toretto's cousin Tony.
In the "Fast and Furious" animated series, Tony follows in the footsteps of his cousin Dom after he and his friends are tapped by a government agency to infiltrate an elite racing league being used as a front by nefarious crime organization for hidden agenda involving world domination.
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"Voltron: Legendary Defender" writer Tim Hedrick will serve as executive producer and showrunner along with "All Hail King Julien" and "The Penguins of Madagascar" producer Bret Haaland.
Vin Diesel, who plays the role of Dom Toretto in the "Fast and Furious" films, as well as the movie producers Neal Moritz, and Chris Morgan will be executive producing the animated series as well.
"We are excited to extend and expand our successful relationship with Netflix by not only delivering more high-quality DreamWorks programming, but connecting fans of Universal films with fascinating new stories," DreamWorks Animation Television president Margie Cohn said in a statement picked up by Variety.
"Our new home at Universal marks an exciting new chapter for storytelling at our studio, and 'Fast and Furious' is only the beginning," she continued.
Netflix vice president of kids and family Melissa Cobb said in a separate statement that they are "thrilled" to take their "fantastic" relationship with DreamWorks Animation to a whole new level with the "Fast and Furious" animated series.
"The 'Fast and Furious' franchise is a global phenomenon beloved by audiences of all ages, and we can't wait to get started on the new animated series that will capture the action, heart, humor and global appeal of the feature films," she stated.
There is no word yet on when the animated series will be released. Either way, fans of the high-octane movie franchise will have a lot to look forward to in the coming years.
A handful of "Fast and Furious" films will be released in the next couple of years. There will be two more in the core series in addition to a spinoff starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham currently titled after their characters, Hobbs and Shaw.
"Deadpool 2" director David Leitch, who was tapped to helm the spinoff, recently talked to Fandango about the project, where he gushed about being part of these two massive movie franchises.
Leitch gushed about the fun of doing press for the movie with the two stars whose chemistry in "Fast and Furious 8" ultimately sealed the deal for the spinoff. The director said that he "couldn't be happier" about being part of the project and being able to do something that hasn't been done in the long-running franchise in the past.
"They understood that I wanted to sort of evolve their world, outside of the 'Fast' world, and give it its own imprint. Obviously, like we did with 'Deadpool,' you're expanding, you're evolving, but you're still being true to the DNA and the core of the characters that people love. I love that challenge and doing it with Dwayne and Jason is like a dream. Those guys are hardworking, talented actors," he went on to say.
