2021's Fast and Furious 9 or F9 marked the 20-year reign of the Fast And Furious franchise. However, unlike previous movies, the latest installment had a warm reception from critics and audiences alike.

Because of this, the announcement of the franchise's renewal for the 10th time was received with excitement. One reason this could have been the case is that people have accepted that movies don’t necessarily need to obey the laws of physics.

If the Marvel Cinematic Universe has characters shooting webs out of their wrists, why can’t there be cars that fight submarines?

Another reason, and a more psychological one, is the idea of ‘Franchise Fatigue.’ So let’s talk about it.

FF For ‘Franchise Fatigue’

In a discussion about the Snyder Cut of Justice League, journalist Tyler Sear touched upon the meaning of Franchise Fatigue.

He described it as a psychological phenomenon in which the audience grows tired of being exposed to a repetitive plot structure, themes, characters, etc.

This is experienced more so now than ever before due to the rise of many franchises. And going back to his analogy of Justice League, he attributes this sense of loathing to characters not being fleshed out enough.

DC’s Extended Universe had the misfortune of having a big movie like Batman V. Superman without appropriately spending time with the involved characters. In contrast, Marvel spent about 11 years with each character to set up Infinity War.

With this understanding, we can perhaps better answer if Fast and Furious has that Franchise Fatigue.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Short Answer, No

As mentioned before, the franchise has been going on for 20 years now. It has spent more than enough time to enable the audience to care about each character within this extended time frame.

Moreover, the series has given newly introduced characters like Hobbs and Shaw. They have their own aptly titled spin-off to tell an elaborately cohesive tale. 

With the number of movies they have churned out, Fast and Furious has been cashing out at the box office. Because of this, NPR has dubbed it the “smartest, dumbest, best, worst” franchise. 

And they are making more of it simply because it’s being asked for.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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What’s To Come

NPR also proposes the Ship of Theseus conundrum — if you replace every board and oar of a ship, is it still the same ship? That is where the Fast and Furious franchise finds itself.

From racing in the seedy streets of Los Angeles, the characters are now larger than life and crashing satellites with a space-faring car. But, this also brings the question, is the movie being big just for the sake of being big?

Actor Vin Diesel commented that knowing what to care for next is the hard part. So why would they race cars anymore now?

They’ve saved the world, so now what else is there to save? Will they add a new meaning to the term ‘space race’? Guess we’ll simply have to put our faith in the franchise and wait for 2023 to see Fast and Furious 10.