F9: Post-credit scene explained by director Justin Lin

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

MAJOR SPOILERS for F9. Consider yourself warned. After several delays, F9 has finally hit theaters, bringing the whole gang back for another physics defying adventure full of over-the-top action and flying cars. Like many blockbusters these days, F9 does include a post-credits scene, and director Justin Lin spoke about the scene with Games Radar.

The post-credit scene opens with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) training with an oddly shaped punching bag, only to unzip it to reveal a battered man who he's interrogating. At that moment, Shaw goes to answer a knock at the door and opens it to find… Han (Sung Kang), the man he thought he had killed.

Although Han was supposedly killed in his first appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the franchise pulled some strings with the timeline in order to keep the character in the franchise a little while longer. During the post-credit scene in Fast & Furious 6, it was revealed that Deckard Shaw was the one who killed Han as the opening salvo of his revenge against the team. Obviously, Han didn't really die and it's revealed in F9 that Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) faked Han's death. There wasn't always a plan to bring Han back into the Fast & Furious family, but fans began campaigning for #JusticeforHan when Deckard Shaw was embraced as a part of the family a mere film after trying to kill all of them.

"When I found out, I was equally baffled," Justin Lin told Games Radar. "I will run into fans and they're like 'Justice for [Gal Gadot's character] Giselle' and I'm like, 'Well, no.' Justice for Han is not bringing back a character you like, it was that the treatment of the character was not right. Justice for Han is not something you serve as just by bringing him back for one film, it's how we treat Han and all our characters from this point on out. And so, it just felt very organic that, with the real estate that we had, at some point, I do want to see him face to face with Shaw." Bringing Han face-to-face with his "killer" is something the fans have wanted to see, and it's likely that we'll see the aftermath of that play out in the final two films. As Justin Lin was the one who brought Jason Statham onboard in the sixth film (his final one up until F9), he was excited to bring him back for another post-credit sequence. "It was a great call with Jason," Lin said. "He's like, 'Hey man, you called me the last time to do the tag. I did it and you left. This time, you're not gonna leave? Right?' It was a great moment of connection for me."

The official synopsis for F9:

Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian, but they know that danger always lurks just over their peaceful horizon. This time, that threat will force Dom to confront the sins of his past if he’s going to save those he loves most. His crew joins together to stop a world-shattering plot led by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they’ve ever encountered: a man who also happens to be Dom’s forsaken brother, Jakob (John Cena).

F9 is now playing in theaters, so check out reviews from our own JimmyO and Chris Bumbray, and let us know what you thought as well.