Fast Forever budget blowout shows Fast & Furious has a story problem money won’t solve

It looks like the Fast & Furious juggernaut may finally have hit the brakes — not on the stunts, but on the budget. After more than two decades of tyre-screeching chaos, Fast Forever is meant to be Dominic Toretto's swan song, but the project seems to be running headfirst into money trouble. Not exactly shocking for a series that's been off chasing physics ever since it started sending characters into orbit.

Money Talks, Studios Walk

Fast X set a new bar for blockbuster spending, reportedly costing a whopping $378 million to throw together. That'd be extravagant even for a Star Wars film, but here's the twist: it only raked in $714 million worldwide. In relative terms, that's not much margin, so Universal isn't in a charitable mood for the next go-around. The word is, there won't be another Fast film unless Fast Forever's budget drops all the way down to around $200 million. For a franchise that's normally allergic to the word 'restraint,' that's a tall order.

Fast X cost $378 million, but Universal now wants Fast Forever’s budget cut to $200 million before it gets made.

The script's coming from Michael Lesslie, with Louis Leterrier back in the director's seat. They've even circled 17 March 2028 for the release, though that's now up in the air with the budgeting standoff.

Cast Members Chime In

This isn't just behind-the-scenes griping. Alan Ritchson, who showed up in Fast X, weighed in on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and wasn't exactly shy about the franchise's woes:

‘There’s just a lot of obstacles. It’s expensive to make. It’s too expensive. It doesn’t make a ton of sense. There’s a more efficient way to shoot those shows. And so there has to be a way to show restraint, while also honoring the fact that this world has expanded to something humongous. We are at the crossroads of something very hard to figure out, and everybody’s figuring it out.’

He's not wrong — when even the cast are side-eyeing the receipts, that's when you know it's not just fans whining on Twitter.

The Fast Saga: Jumping the Shark (and the Dam)

Financial matters aside, this is a series that's quietly lost the run of itself in terms of story. If you grew up with the original Fast & Furious, you'll remember it was more about street racing, a bit of undercover cop business, and some decent tension. Now? We've got Dom driving down the side of a dam to dodge an explosion and Tej with Roman literally flying a Vauxhall into space — the sort of spectacle that only gets green-lit when someone forgets to take their finger off the zero button on the budgeting spreadsheet.

• Fast X: Dam-driving, explosions, physics-defying escapes
• F9: Characters in orbit via a souped-up Pontiac Fiero
• Furious 7 and onwards: Plots moving away from the streets and straight into superhero territory

The numbers don’t lie: $7 billion in global takings across the entire run, but lately the core appeal’s been buried under weight of over-the-top set pieces. You'd think someone at Universal might remember that people showed up in the first place for a bit of hot-rodding and some laughs — not because they wanted to see cars playing leapfrog with missiles.

There's still hope the next film finds its way back to earth. Nobody’s saying you can’t have a bit of spectacle, but a little restraint (financial and creative) wouldn’t go amiss if they're hoping to not just finish but actually win the race.