Pop your gas cap and get ready to have an amazing naming convention poured into your tank because someone has collected the amazing Japanese release titles for the Fast & Furious franchise. That's right, folks. If you thought Universal lost the plot on naming films in the Fast series after Fast Five, you had better buckle up.
As collected on Reddit, here are the Japanese release titles for all nine Fast & Furious films:
The Fast and the Furious (2001): Wild Speed
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003): Wild Speed X2
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006): Wild Speed X3: Tokyo Drift
Fast & Furious (2009): Wild Speed MAX
Fast Five (2011): Wild Speed MEGA MAX
Fast & Furious 6 (2013): Wild Speed: Euro Mission
Furious 7 (2015): Wild Speed: Sky Mission
The Fate of the Furious (2017): Wild Speed: Ice Break
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019): Wild Speed: Super Combo
F9 (2021): Wild Speed: Jet Break
Is it just me, or do so many of these titles sound like DLC for a Fast & Furious video game? My personal favorites are Furious 7 (2015): Wild Speed: Sky Mission and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019): Wild Speed: Super Combo. That last one sounds like you would get Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson as toys in a McDonald's Happy Meal, doesn't it? Would you like fries with your Box Office Behemoth Burger?
I suppose it doesn't matter what these movies are called, so long as they clean up at the box office, right? As of this moment, F9: The Fast Saga has earned $497M+ worldwide since June 25. That's a mighty impressive number considering that many theaters are still shuttered in certain parts of the world, places like Ontario, Canada. Oh, but I'm not bitter. Not at all. It's not like F9 will be the first film in the franchise that I won't get to see on the big screen or anything. Grumble, grumble. Let's get our act together, eh, Ontario?
What do you think of the Japanese titles for the Fast & Furious franchise? Do you think Universal has made a mistake by not adopting these amazing titles? Do we need to rethink the way we name our film sequels? Imagine buying a ticket for Indiana Jones and the Ancient Super Combo. Now that's a movie I would pre-order tickets for.