Justin Lin announced this week that he stepped down as director of “FAST X,” the next installment in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, reportedly over creative differences. Seth Meyers took a sassy guess at what those differences might be.
Lin made the announcement on Tuesday, expressing his gratitude for the franchise, and assuring fans that he will remain a producer. Though an exact reason for his shocking exit hasn’t been announced, individuals with knowledge of the situation say creative differences were in play.
And in Meyers’s opinion, those creative differences were simply a desire to be creative.
“Justin Lin announced that he decided to leave the movie Fast X reportedly due to creative differences. He wanted the movie to be creative, and no one else did,” Meyers sniped during his monologue, which you can watch in the video above.
In a statement on Tuesday, Lin wrote “With the support of Universal, I have made the difficult decision to step back as director of FAST X, while remaining with the project as a producer. Over 10 years and five films, we have been able to shoot the best actors, the best stunts, and the best damn car chases. On a personal note, as the child of Asian immigrants, I am proud of helping to build the most diverse franchise in movie history. I will forever be grateful to the amazing cast, crew and studio for their support, and for welcoming me into the FAST family.”
Lin previously directed “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” “Fast & Furious,” “Fast Five,” and “Fast & Furious 6.” In 2014, Lin left the franchise to direct “Star Trek Beyond,” but returned for last year’s “F9” and was supposed to direct both the 10th film and the 11th, final installment of the series.
Meyers also joked that, in Lin’s stead, Wes Anderson had been tapped to direct. (At this point, no actual replacement for Lin has been announced).