The first movie is best known as a Vin Diesel 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.
The fourth movie prominently features Michelle Rodriguez on the poster and in the trailers, even though her character dies roughly fifteen minutes into the movie. Then subverted when she returns in the sixth film and is the only main character to not get featured on its poster.
Han's garage and the chase scene in Tokyo Drift are filmed in Los Angeles.
The shooting for Fast Five took place in Puerto Rico. It's pretty easy to notice if you live in Puerto Rico too.
Scenes from Fast Five were also shot in Atlanta.
A lot of the London scenes in Fast Six were actually shot in Glasgow.
The Caucasus Mountains rescue scene in 7 was filmed in Colorado's Pikes Peak, and some of the scenes in Los Angeles were actually shot in Atlanta.
Cash-Cow Franchise: Oh, so much, especially Furious 7; it grossed $1 billion worldwide by the end of its first weekend in domestic release. Furious 7 was fast tracked to production because Universal considered the franchise to be one of their reliable moneymakers, and not even Paul Walker's death could dent their plans. Fast X was originally intended to be the final film in the series, but Universal kept demanding for more films, until it ended up being the first of a planned trilogy to conclude the franchise.
Tokyo Drift is the biggest offender, for obvious reasons: Lucas Black (Sean) was 22, Zachary Ty Brian (Clay) was 23, Nikki Griffin (Clay's girlfriend Cindy) was 28, Nathalie Kelley (Neela) was 21, Bow Wow (Twinkie) was 19, Leonardo Nam (Takeshi's friend Morimoto) was 25, and Brian Tee (Takeshi) was the worst at 29. Only Bow Wow was still technically a teenager out of the cast.
The trope is even more in effect in Furious 7, which finally gets to the timeline of Tokyo Drift. Lucas Black, now 32, returned to play his unaged character (Nathalie Kelley and Bow Wow appeared through archive footage only).
Both Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Vince (Matt Schulze) were said to be 24 when The Fast and The Furious has been made. Vin Diesel was 34, Matt Schulze was 29 by then. Well, Schulze was still in his twenties at least. Diesel, however, passed pretty well for 24-year old Toretto. (Many have jokingly attributed Diesel's younger appearance compared to his real age to his love for Dungeons & Dragons.)
Sung Kang was 40, 38, 36 and 34 respectively when filming Fast & Furious 6, 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.
Dueling-Stars Movie: Fast Five is most notable for being Vin Diesel vs. Dwayne Johnson. 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. And The Stinger for #6 took it up a notch by adding Jason Statham.
Cuban-American Dominic Toretto is played by Vin Diesel, who is mixed and may or may not be Cuban himself. His sister, Mia, is played by Jordana Brewster, who is Brazilian-American from Panama, and his brother Jakob, is played by John Cena, who is Italian-American, not to mention his cousin Tony, who is the main protagonist of spinoff Spy Racers, is voiced by Tyler Posey, who is of mixed Mexican and European descent.
Johnny Tran is possibly Vietnamese-American, judging by his name, but his actor is Rick Yune, an American of Korean descent. Meanwhile, his cousin, Lance Nguyen, is played by the Filipino-American Reggie Lee.
Another interchangeable Asian example: Morimoto, from Tokyo Drift, is Japanese, but is played by Leonardo Nam, an Argentine-Australian of, again, Korean descent.
Brazilian cop Elena Neves is played by Elsa Pataky, a Spaniard of partial Romanian descent.
Fast & Furious 6Big Bad Owen Shaw is Irish, but his actor, Luke Evans, is Welsh. Then there's his brother, Deckard, in Furious 7, played by Englishman Jason Stathamand their mother played by Englishwoman Dame Helen Mirren with a Cockney accent.
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker became close friends over the course of the series and Diesel was devastated by Walker's tragic death. He became a godfather to Walker's daughter, Meadow, and his youngest daughter, Pauline, was named after him.
Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson were close friends both off and on set, particularly after the former fought tooth and nails so the latter could remain in the franchise following 2 Fast 2 Furious. Gibson in turn shared Walker's friendship with Vin Diesel, and defended him during his public spat with Dwayne Johnson.
There was an infamous one between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson that began in 2016, sometimes memetically referred to as "#CandyAssGate" due to the latter's word choice in describing the former. The two largely refused to film scenes together in most of their shared films (resulting in scenes between the two rarely containing both their faces in the same shot, such as the hospital scene in Furious 7), and routinely criticized each other (and not in an affectionate way) in interviews. After Diesel attempted to claim during interviews for F9 that his behavior on Fast Five was to bring Johnson's performance up to his standards, Johnson announced he was leaving the series, barring potential sequels to the Diesel-free Hobbs & Shaw. Diesel later made a public offer for Johnson to return to the main series, which Johnson rebuffed. However, Johnson made an appearance in The Stinger of Fast X, and later confirmed that he and Diesel had reconciled, with him set to return in the final two films of the series.
Justin Lin reportedly bowed out of directing Fast X due to a conflict with Vin Diesel, claiming that the film is "not worth my mental health". He remains attached as a producer, however.
One for the Money; One for the Art: A variation. Supposedly, Vin Diesel's cameo in Tokyo Drift was done in lieu of payment, but in exchange for the rights to the Riddick series.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: The second to last episode of the season is titled “2 Scott 2 Pilgrim” as a reference to the [[Film/2Fast2Furious second film]].
Stunt Casting: One of the franchise's first selling points was the inclusion of known rappers in the cast, from Ja Rule in the first to Ludacris in the second and Lil' Bow Wow in the third - but now it looks to be subverted as Ludacris' staying power easily beats out all the others. Fast Five also dabble in this, adding Dwayne Johnson as a supporting (but important) character that eventually became one of the protagonists in later films. Fast & Furious 9 did not feature Johnson due to him starring in his own spin-off; seemingly to make up for it, fellow wrestler-turned-actor John Cenaappeared instead.
Miscellaneous trivia
Fast 8 is the first American movie to film in Cuba.
Fast 8 is the first Fast and Furious movie to star an Oscar winner in the cast. It actually features two: Dame Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron.
due to the death of Paul Walker in November 2013, who portrayed Brian O'Connor, before being restarted in January 2014.