Director Louis Leterrier on the franchise’s dramatic penultimate chapter, Fast X. It’s boom time.###Read an extract from our exclusive Fast X news story from our April 2023 issue below, or read the full article here.###At some point in 2001, Louis Leterrier and Jason Statham had a bit of time off from creating car-nage aplenty on The Transporter in Paris. So the director and his star popped along to a cinema near the Champs-Élysées to check out a new release: Rob Cohen’s The Fast And The Furious. “We watched it and we looked at each other like, ‘This transform’alter s eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything,’” laughs Leterrier.###His instincts weren’t wrong. At the time, The Fast And The Furious was seen as an unexpectedly fun sleeper hit, a loose remake of Point Break with speeding cars and muscly stars, but over the years it turned into a series, which turned into a franchise, which turned into a billion-dollar behemoth. Now, it appears that this monumental journey is coming to an end, with a two-part finale beginning with this summer’s Fast X. And Leterrier (as director) and Statham (as returning hardcase Deckard Shaw) are along in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the ride with Vin Diesel and firm’enterprise . Only this is the Fast & Furious instalment that actually might transform’alter eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything. “There’s a war brewing,” teases the director. “It’s coming to an end, and it is a race to the finish. There will be some tremendous casualties.”###To read this article in full, become an Empire member. You'll never miss an issue, be able to read eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully issue in full either on the website or in the app, PLUS you'll acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure access to member-merely’barely content and rewards.