As those who are familiar with the Fast & Furious franchise know, the timeline from the movie that started it all, The Fast and the Furious, to the most recent entry, spinoff Hobbs & Shaw, doesn’t unfold as a straight line. While that initially seemed to be the case, after the release of Tokyo Drift, the clock was wound back so we could spend more time with Han Lue, and it isn’t until Fast & Furious 6’s mid-credits scene/Furious 7 that things finally line up again and the rest of the series progresses in a chronological order (for now).
That’s easy enough to follow, but that doesn’t mean the Fast & Furious timeline isn’t without other issues. Whether it’s the age of certain characters not lining up with the progression of time within this continuity or conflicting stories for how other characters met, various things just don’t add up, although given that this series has abandoned any semblance of reality in favor of over-the-top, cartoonish action, timeline issues are relatively tame in the grand scheme of things.
In any case, let’s start off by looking at what Hobbs & Shaw does to muddy up the Fast & Furious timeline.
Deckard And Hattie Shaw’s Childhood
Admittedly, this isn’t really an issue with Fast and Furious continuity as much as it is with casting. One of the characters Hobbs & Shaw introduces is Hattie Shaw, Deckard Shaw’s sister who, unlike her brothers and mother, avoided a life of crime and is a badass MI6 agent at the start of the movie. Magdalene Shaw reminisces about how much she loved seeing Deckard and Hattie spend time with one another as kids, and there are brief flashbacks of the two of them, both as kids, pulling off grifts and schemes.
In real life, Jason Statham is 52 years old and Vanessa Kirby is 31 years old. Even if you fudge their respective characters’ ages a bit, whether it’s making Deckard a little younger or Hattie a little older, it still doesn’t make any sense for the two of them to have been kids around the same time. It would have made a lot more sense if Deckard was mentoring his kid sister Hattie during his 20s, as you can still have a sibling dynamic between them while also providing further context for why Deckard isn’t as close with Hattie anymore. In any case, the internet had a field day with that massive age gap in real life and the refusal to acknowledge it in this fictional narrative.
Samantha Hobbs’ Age
Following Luke Hobbs’ first two Fast and Furious appearances, we met his daughter Samantha in Furious 7, where she visited her dad in the hospital after his fight with Deckard Shaw. Samantha briefly returned in The Fate of the Furious and was also present for Hobbs & Shaw (Eliana Su’a took over the role from Eden Estrella, pictured above, for the spinoff), which ended with her finally getting to meet her extended family in Samoa.
So what’s the problem? Samantha is said to be nine years old during the events of Hobbs & Shaw, and while it’s hardly unrealistic for someone Luke Hobbs’ age (let’s assume he’s just as old as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) to have a daughter that old, it doesn’t make sense when you consider that several years are supposed to have passed between Furious 7 and Hobbs & Shaw. Could Samantha have been nine during Furious 7? Definitely, but by now she should be in middle school, so what’s the deal?
How Brian And Roman Met Each Other
During 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian O’Conner reunited with his old friend Roman Pearce, although initially they were anything but friendly. We learned that during Brian’s first months as a cop, Roman was arrested for keeping some stolen cars in a garage, and while Brian wasn’t involved with the arrest, Roman thought he could have done more to help him. Fortunately, those two patched things up by the end of 2 Fast 2 Furious, and from Fast Five to Furious 7, they were partners-in-crime again. It’s all pretty straightforward.
That said, it’s unclear just how long Brian and Roman have known each other. In 2 Fast 2 Furious, it’s said that they were childhood friends, growing up together in the same neighborhood. But in Fast Five, Brian says he met Roman during his time in juvenile detention. This inconsistency can presumably be attributed to the fact that 2009’s Fast & Furious served as a soft reboot for the franchise, with how Brian and Roman met being one example of mild continuity adjusting and the Fast Five explanation taking precedence, though that’s never been outright stated by any of the creative minds.
Brian Toretto’s Age
During the craziness of The Fate of the Furious, Dominic Toretto learned that he had an infant son, the mother being his ex-lover Elena Leves. Sadly, Elena was executed by one of Cipher’s henchmen shortly after Dom reunited with her, but the baby is in safe hands with Dom and Letty Ortiz, and Dom decided to name his son after his best friend, Brian. The problem is that the young Brian should have been well past infancy by the time Dom learned he existed.
Dominic and Elena became an item at the end of Fast Five and were still together at the beginning of Fast & Furious 6, but when Dom discovered Letty was still alive and Elena encouraged him to go find her, that marked the end of their relationship. Approximately three-to-four years pass between Fast & Furious 6 and The Fate of the Furious, so even if you assume that Elena became pregnant right before she and Dom broke up and account for the nine months of pregnancy, then Brian Toretto should at least be a toddler who’s walking around. If Brian O’Conner and Mia Toretto’s son Jack goes from being an infant to pre-school-aged between Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7, then it’s baffling that Little Brian hasn’t aged similarly.
Technology In Tokyo Drift
Here we have a timeline issue that wasn’t a problem when the movie itself came out, but became one later on in the Fast & Furious franchise. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift came out in 2006, and as such the technology being used in Japan is obviously from the mid-2000s, from the models of cars to the flip phones. It made sense at the time since Tokyo Drift was considered a present-day story, but turning the clock back from Fast & Furious to Furious 7 made all this look odd.
You’ll recall that Han Lue is killed in a car crash during Tokyo Drift, and the Fast & Furious 6 mid-credits scene and Furious 7 show that it was Deckard Shaw who deliberately ran into him. Furious 7 takes place around 2014, meaning there’s an eight year gap between when Tokyo Drift was originally took place and when it actually takes place now. So at this point, even in Japan, a lot of people should be using smartphones, not to mention more current references would be called for. But again, unless Tokyo Drift had been heavily re-edited and re-released, this is a problem that couldn’t have been avoided. There’s also the fact that Lucas Black reprised Sean Boswell in Furious 7 despite the fact that nearly a decade had passed in real life from when he’d been playing a teenager, but at least he aged gracefully enough that it’s hardly noticeable.
If I missed any glaring timeline/continuity issues in the Fast & Furious franchise, feel free to share them in the comments below. Make sure to read CinemaBlend’s review of Hobbs & Shaw, and be on the lookout for Fast & Furious 9 when it races into theaters on May 22, 2020.
Here we have a timeline issue that wasn’t a problem when the movie itself came out, but became one later on in the Fast & Furious franchise. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift came out in 2006, and as such the technology being used in Japan is obviously from the mid-2000s, from the models of cars to the flip phones. It made sense at the time since Tokyo Drift was considered a present-day story, but turning the clock back from Fast & Furious to Furious 7 made all this look odd.
You’ll recall that Han Lue is killed in a car crash during Tokyo Drift, and the Fast & Furius 6 mid-credits scene and Furious 7 show that it was Deckard Shaw who deliberately ran into him. Furious 7 takes place around 2014, meaning there’s an eight year gap between when Tokyo Drift was originally took place and when it actually takes place now. So at this point, even in Japan, a lot of people should be using smartphones, not to mention more current references would be called for. But again, unless Tokyo Drift had been heavily re-edited and re-released, this is a problem that couldn’t have been avoided. There’s also the fact that Lucas Black reprised Sean Boswell in Furious 7 despite the fact that nearly a decade had passed in real life from when he’d been playing a teenager, but at least he aged gracefully enough that it’s hardly noticeable.
If I missed any glaring timeline/continuity issues in the Fast & Furious franchise, feel free to share them in the comments below. Make sure to read CinemaBlend’s review of Hobbs & Shaw, and be on the lookout for Fast & Furious 9 when it races into theaters on May 22, 2020.
