History Trivia / TheFastAndTheFurious

* RetroactiveRecognition: Toku fans may recognize [[Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon Sailor Mars]] and Series/LionMaruG in ''Tokyo Drift''.

** Hobbs, being played by former WWE champion [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]], gets to bust out a few wrestling movies - he pulls off a [[ProfessionalWrestling Doomsday Device]] [[spoiler: with Dom]] in ''6'', and hits the Rock Bottom, his WWE finishing move, in ''Furious 7''.

** CharlizeTheron being cast as the new villain in the 8th installment hot off the back of her acclaimed turn as drive-fast, fight-fierce heroine, Furiosa, in ''Mad Max: Fury Road'' made for a lot of good ''Fast and Furiosa'' puns, coupled with the two movies' similar focus on cars, driving, fights, and action the casting seemed particularly appropriate.
** PaulWalker's preference of Japanese imports in real life is reflected on Brian. In fact, the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R from ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' and the Toyota Supra from ''Furious 7'' are his personal vehicles.
** Martial artist henchman Jah has half of the name of another character also played by Joe Taslim, [[Film/TheRaidRedemption Jaka.]]
* AuthorExistenceFailure: PaulWalker was killed in a car accident over Thanksgiving weekend 2013, which unfortunately happened while ''Fast & Furious 7'' was still in production.

** The first movie is best known as a VinDiesel flick. Paul Walker actually plays the main character. Downplayed example, as Vin Diesel's character is just as critical as Walker's. It's also worth noting that in the more recent films, especially 5 and 6, Dom actually does fit the main character role more than Brian by this point, and looks to be the case permanently considering Paul's untimely death and Brian's subsequent retirement as a character.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Han's garage and the chase scene in ''Tokyo Drift'' are filmed in Los Angeles.

* ''Fast 8'' is the first American movie to film in Cuba.

** The fifth film actually started out as ''The Brazilian Job'', the proposed sequel to ''[[Film/TheItalianJob2003 The Italian Job]]'', when the sequel went through DevelopmentHell, the script was bought and rewritten to fit into the F&F series.

** Deckard Shaw was originally to be named Ian Shaw. This was changed to avoid confusion with his similarly-named brother, Owen Shaw.

* [[FakeNationality Fake Ethnicity/Fake Nationality]]: Italian-American Dominic Toretto is played by Creator/VinDiesel, who is biracial of many ancestries (including English, German, and Scottish) but Italian isn't one of them. His sister, Mia, meanwhile, is played by Jordana Brewster, who is of Brazilian and English descents.

** Both Toretto (VinDiesel) and Vince (Matt Schulze) were said to be 24 when ''The Fast and The Furious'' has been made. VinDiesel was 34, Matt Schulze was 29 by then.

* DuelingStarsMovie: Fast Five is most notable for being Creator/VinDiesel vs. Wrestling/DwayneJohnson. Johnson's character was originally going to be an older guy, but awesomely enough the filmmakers took up a fan's suggestion on {{Facebook}} that it would be great to see Diesel and Johnson in a movie together. [[spoiler:And TheStinger for #6 hints that they're taking it up a notch by adding Creator/JasonStatham.]]

* RealitySubtext: Since Walker died midway through Furious 7, the film had to be rewritten to accommodate it. The films tagline is "One Last Ride", there's a scene at [[spoiler:Han's]] funeral where [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the normally lighthearted Roman grimly tells Brian he can't take any more funerals]], the recurring subplot about how Brian can't afford to go haring off around the world and risking his life when he has a family to take care of.

** The first movie is best known as a VinDiesel flick. Paul Walker actually plays the main character. Downplayed example, as Vin Diesel's character is just as critical as Walker's. It's also worth noting that in the more recent films, especially 5 and 6, Dom actually does fit the main character role more than Brian by this point.

** At the end of ''6'', there is an exchange between Roman (Tyreese Gibson) and Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) at the Toretto home. Roman says, "Hey Mia, better hide your baby oil!" to which Hobbs responds, "...You better hide that big-ass forehead!" The latter line was unscripted, and the delivery caused Tej (Chris Bridges) to spit out his beer in laughter. This take was used in the final cut.

** The song that plays in ''Furious 7'''s final scene, "See You Again", was originally supposed to be sung by Music/SamSmith rather than Charlie Puth.

*** The trope is even more in effect in ''Furious 7'', which finally gets to the timeline of ''Tokyo Drift''. Lucas Black, now 32, returns to play his unaged character (Nathalie Kelley and Bow Wow appear through archive footage only).

** Sung Kang was 39, 36 and 34 respectively when filming ''Fast Five'', ''Fast and Furious'' and ''Tokyo Drift''. Granted, we wouldn't be able to pinpoint Han's actual age in the films, but it's freaking amazing how Kang manages to pull off the role looking young.
* DevelopmentHell: The seventh movie was [[http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/paul-walker-dead-fast-furious-2889701 forced into this status]] due to [[AuthorExistenceFailure the death]] of Paul Walker in November 2013, who portrayed Brian O'Connor, before being restarted in January 2014.

* [[FakeNationality Fake Ethnicity/FakeNationality]]: Italian-American Dominic Toretto is played by Creator/VinDiesel, who is biracial of many ancestries (including English, German, and Scottish) but Italian isn't one of them. His sister, Mia, meanwhile, is played by Jordana Brewster, who is of Brazilian and English-American descents.

*** When the characters return in ''Furious 7'', the trope is even more in effect. Lucas Black, now 32, Nathalie Kelley, now 29, and Bow Wow, now 27, return to play their unaged characters, [[spoiler:which would explain why they have so little screentime]].

* [[FakeNationality Fake Ethnicity]]: Italian-American Dom and Mia Toretto played by the Brazilian/American Jordana Brewster and VinDiesel, who's half-black and half-white (consisting of English, German, and Scottish ancestries). [[FakeIrish Irish]] Brian O'Connor played by English-American PaulWalker. (Inferred) Mexican Hector played by Italian-American Noel Guglielmi.

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** Michelle Rodriguez and Laz Alonzo of ''Fast & Furious'' had lead supporting roles in a certain other [[Film/{{Avatar}} 2009 blockbuster.]]
** Then there's Lucas Black, who played Caleb in ''Series/AmericanGothic'' when he was ''much'' younger.
** Tokusatsu fans might recognize Reiko from ''Tokyo Drift'' as [[Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon Sailor Mars]].
** In a blink or you'll miss it cameo in the 3rd movie, a fisherman turns out to be the Drift King, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiichi_Tsuchiya Keiichi Tsuchiya]], who popularized the method during his domination of motorsports.
** Sonny Chiba also shows up in the 3rd film as DK's yakuza uncle.
** The hot Brazilian cop assissting the DSS agents was last seen on [[Film/SnakesOnAPlane a plane with motherfucking snakes.]]
** Agent Markham from the second film is [[Film/TheWarriors Ajax.]]
** [[AustinPowers DK ran from Notzilla once]]. Then, [[Series/BurnNotice Fiona and Michael]] caught him and Madeline played him for a fool.
** Reyes was looking for [[Film/{{Desperado}} El]] once.
** One of Dom's old rivals [[Film/DieAnotherDay had an accident with an explosive briefcase full of conflict diamonds.]]
** The BigBad of ''Film/TwoFastTwoFurious'' [[{{Paparazzi}} hates photographers]]. His henchman [[Film/BatmanBegins is on the take in Gotham]].
** [[Series/HomeImprovement Tim Taylor should take that blond kid's keys]].
** [[Series/BoardwalkEmpire Eli Thompson]] used to be an FBI agent.
** Joe Taslim, an Indonesian actor known for playing Sergeant Jaka in Film/TheRaid is Jah in Fast Six.
** [[spoiler: Film/TheTransporter]] is set to be the BigBad of the seventh movie.
** Ramsey moonlights as an interpreter for [[Series/GameOfThrones the Mother of Dragons]].
** Kiet once [[Film/TomYumGoong single-handedly mowed down a restaurant full of thugs]] in Sydney.
** Djimon Honsou as Mose Jakande. [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Korath]] now heads a mercenary group against a group let, ironically, by [[Creator/VinDiesel Groot.]]

** While part seven was in production, Universal hoped to get to at least ten movies, and ''Furious 7'' would even have another SequelHook to widen the series' scope. Then Paul Walker died, and the movie had to be rewritten to give some sort of closure, particularly to Walker's character Brian.

* [[FakeNationality Fake Ethnicity]]: Italian-American Dom and Mia Toretto played by the Brazilian/American Jordana Brewster and VinDiesel, whose half-black, and half-white (consisting of English, German, and Scottish ancestries). [[FakeIrish Irish]] Brian O'Connor played by English-American PaulWalker. (Inferred) Mexican Hector played by Italian-American Noel Guglielmi.

* [[FakeNationality Fake Ethnicity]]: Italian-American Dom and Mia Toretto played by the Brazilian/American Jordana Brewster and Black/Scottish VinDiesel. [[FakeIrish Irish]] Brian O'Connor played by English-American PaulWalker. (Inferred) Mexican Hector played by Italian-American Noel Guglielmi.

* PlayingAgainstType: Deckard is a far cry from Creator/{{Jason Statham}}'s [[AntiHero usual role]].

* BreakawayPopHit: Not many $1 billion grossing movies can claim to have spawned a hit song bigger than the film itself: ''Furious 7'' can, thanks to Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again."