As the pandemic winds down here in the US, “F9: The Fast Saga” is arriving in theaters to try to welcome us back to some approximation of normalcy. This year has given us two $100 million blockbusters thus far with “Godzilla vs Kong’ and “A Quiet Place Part II,” but the ninth “Fast & Furious” flick is expected to be the biggest hit since the pandemic bagan more than a year ago.
While “F9” might be the craziest movie in the franchise thus far, it’s certainly not the end of the series. While the “Fast & Furious” movies don’t always include a bonus scene during or after the credits, a couple of the films have used the convention in big ways — like the reveal that Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) was still alive at the end of “Fast Five.” “F9” also has one of those bonus scenes for us, right smack in the middle of the credits.
There’s nothing else after that — if you’re just reading this to find out if you should hold off on running to the bathroom after the movie is over, you can rest assured that this mid-credits scene is the only bit of extra content you’re going to need to stick around for.
We’re going to talk about that scene here in just a moment. So if you’re just here to find out whether there is something extra to stick around for, and you don’t want to know what the scene actually is, you should leave now.
Because it really is a doozy.
There are spoilers ahead for the mid-credits scene in “F9.”
The mid-credits scene brings us a surprise appearance by a cast member who was in previous “Fast & Furious” movies, but not this one. There was some debate about whether we’d ever see this person again in this films, but I guess this answers that question.
I’m referring to Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, who got drafted into Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s “Hobbs & Shaw.” Johnson famously feuded with Vin Diesel during production on “The Fate of the Furious,” and it felt like Johnson got Statham in the divorce when we learned that neither of those two would be in “F9.”
And yet here we have Shaw, training with a punching bag that actually has a person inside it — some bad guy, presumably. But the exciting part of the scene comes when somebody knocks on Shaw’s door.
That person is Han (Sung Kang), recently back from the dead, paying a visit to the man who we all thought had killed him. But the scene ends before we can see this interaction play out.
What does this scene mean? Will Statham be back for the next main movie? Will Hobbs come with him? We’ll have to wait and see. But rest assured that a tenth “Fast & Furious” flick is on the way.