{"id":154908,"date":"2025-11-27T02:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T02:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/154908\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T02:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T02:12:09","slug":"tokyo-drift-nearly-starred-joseph-gordon-levitt-in-lead-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/154908\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo Drift Nearly Starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt In Lead Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have been the star of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift<\/a> had director Justin Lin gotten his way. After deals for Vin Diesel or Paul Walker to lead the third film in the Fast & Furious franchise didn’t come together, the series pivoted to focus on Sean Boswell, an American teenager in Japan who learns how to drift.<\/p>\n

Lucas Black was cast in the lead role, but he was not the original choice, it turns out. As revealed by Barry Hertz’s new book “Welcome To The Family”<\/a>, Lin had his eyes on Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play Sean in Tokyo Drift. This was part of a plan to make Sean half-Japanese (Gordon-Levitt has never claimed to have Asian ancestry, for the record).<\/p>\n

The director and the young actor met about the possibility, meeting in the editing room of Annapolis so Lin could give him a glimpse at his work. The casting seemingly would have come to fruition if not for Universal. According to Hertz’s book, the studio was nervous about his ability to be a “big-screen leading man,” noting that he was better known for TV and independent films.<\/p>\n

It was after Universal’s concerns that Black was cast as Sean, after Channing Tatum’s failed audition<\/a>, leaving Gordon-Levitt without a role. He’s yet to snag a role in any future installments of the franchise, despite Lin directing multiple of them, while Black reprised his role years after Tokyo Drift in Furious 7 and F9.<\/p>\n

\"Lucas
\n Lucas Black as Sean Boswell in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift<\/p>\n

While Gordon-Levitt is the bigger star nowadays, Universal’s hesitancy about making him the lead of Tokyo Drift is somewhat understandable. He was only a few years removed from playing a major role on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. And while he did 10 Things I Hate About You and Disney’s Treasure Planet, he was still far from a household name.<\/p>\n

Black was in a slightly better position career-wise. He’d just made Friday Night Lights (the movie, not the TV show) and was seen as a rising talent. Even though Universal wanted to keep costs down on Tokyo Drift and wasn’t sure if it would be a success, casting someone like him made sense.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s intriguing to consider what Tokyo Drift would have looked like with Gordon-Levitt in the lead. He could have done a better job of making Sean a memorable character, making him more relatable, delivering lines strongly, and enhancing his overall personality.<\/p>\n

The half-Japanese nature of the role (which was dropped after Black’s casting) also would have been beneficial. Rather than Sean being a sort of “white savior” who becomes the best drifter as a total outsider of the culture responsible for making it popular, there could’ve been an element of him embracing this part of his lineage.<\/p>\n

There’s no guarantee that The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift would be significantly better, or worse, if Joseph Gordon-Levitt had played Sean Boswell. But, there is a chance the movie could have popped even more, perhaps paving the way for the character to play a larger role in the installments that followed.<\/p>\n

“Welcome To The Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, The Blockbusters That Supercharged The World”<\/a> is out now<\/p>\n

\"01390703_poster_w780.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 16, 2006<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t104 minutes<\/p>\n

\"Cast<\/p>\n

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