Jamie Foxx could’ve been a major villain in the Fast & Furious franchise if an unused F9 idea had come to fruition. Playing a villain in the high-octane series has become a huge part of Hollywood’s biggest stars, with Jason Momoa, John Cena, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Jason Statham, and more lending their talents to stand opposite Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and friends.
The series is always big-game hunting when it comes to its villain casting, and Barry Hertz’s new book “Welcome To The Family” has now revealed it desperately wanted Jamie Foxx to join the franchise in F9. A post-credits scene was written “with the hope of featuring Jamie Foxx as a new villain,” but it never materialized.
This idea came about from the revolving door of discussions about F9’s credits scene. Screenwriter Daniel Casey says in the book, “We wrote postcredit button scenes for quite a few different characters in F9, including actors that we hoped would play the villains in Fast 10—people who weren’t even in these movies, who you just hoped to see. I think we wrote eight different buttons for F9 until going with the one with Jason Statham.”
Foxx’s scene was one of those other eight buttons. The book doesn’t include any additional information on how close this casting came to happening. Foxx may have never even been contacted about the potential franchise role. Or, he could’ve turned down the opportunity. He has never spoken about the possibility of joining this saga, and no one associated with the films has discussed this plan either.
Jamie Foxx in Baby Driver
In any case, without Foxx aboard, F9’s credits scene went in a very different direction. The book notes that Gal Gadot’s return as Gisele in Fast X was written for F9, but that didn’t happen due to scheduling conflicts. This led the film to use its stinger as a chance to have Han (Sung Kang) come face-to-face with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), setting up the #JusticeForHan payoff in Fast X.
Still, what the plan was for Foxx’s post-credits appearance is intriguing. He would have certainly become the main villain of Fast X based on this setup. Jason Momoa’s Dante occupied that role, but this would not have been as simple as Foxx playing Dante Reyes.
Fast X introduces the Brazilian villain as the son of Hernan Reyes, Fast Five’s villain. Foxx is neither the right age nor ethnicity to pass as Hernan’s child, suggesting that Foxx’s villain would’ve been an entirely different character.
That does leave some room for the Fast & Furious franchise to still deliver on this idea. If his character has not already been retooled into somebody else, then new entries in the series could always revisit the concept and try to get him on board.
It would certainly be entertaining to see Foxx be part of this saga one day. He makes just about every character he plays as cool as can be, and his comedic and action abilities would lend themselves well to a series like Fast & Furious​​​​​​. He’d have no trouble chewing up the scenery and standing opposed to Diesel.
After all, if Fast & Furious credits scene ideas can be recycled for future installments, there’s no stopping Fast 11 or another film from taking F9’s idea and bringing Jamie Foxx into the fold, should he be interested in joining this sprawling universe.
Release Date
June 25, 2021
Runtime
143 Minutes