The fourth Fast & Furious movie (or the third depending on whether you go by release date or timeline chronology) saw Michelle Rodriguez’s character Letty gets killed during a car chase. We were shown her bleeding body lying on the ground as Dom comes back to the place of the carnage. As we all know Letty came back alive in the sixth installment, and Justin Lin is now saying she was meant to die for real in 4th movie.
Fast & Furious franchise has gone from a street car racing movie with a little bit of thievery going on in the side to full blown superhero movies in the past decade. It all started with The Fast and the Furious back in 2001 as the Toretto family evaded the police and while trying to operate their garage and car modification business. But when an eager FBI agent gets involved, things soon evolve into a cops and robber story.
In the first movie we were introduced to Dom and Letty. They are partners in crime from a young age. In the succeeding films their relationship grows and comes to a head in Fast & Furious as a criminal sets a flips her car and blows her while Dom is told about the incident. The “death” led to plot points in two separate movies but Letty came back. Well, she was not meant to, if Justin Lin is to be believed.
Justin Lin Says It was Hard Killing Letty But It was Also Meant to be Final
In the post credit scene of Fast Five, Dom was given a file with a picture inside by Hobbs. The pictures showed Letty in London, as part of a crew, involved in a robbery. In the sixth movie Brian and Dom discuss whether the picture is for real which brings them to London and Dom comes face to face with Letty for the first time since making out of the tunnels in the US-Mexico border.
Fast & Furious then proceeds to pull a days of our lives shtick, brining Letty back with amnesia. It was hilarious and not so creative way of bringing back the character and now we understand why the return felt so stunted. Well, Letty was really supposed to be dead and there was no plan of bringing her back after hoping one movie in the chronology.
In Fast & Furious six we see Letty and Dom see each other for the first time since the border gang incident. She did not recognize him and proceeded to shoot him, later the necklace she gave to Toretto in Dominican Republic becomes a point of connection for the two. While the story was a little mess it was because the plan was never in place to bring Letty back no matter how much Justin Lin loved working with her.
Also Read: Justin Lin Reveals Hobbs and Shaw’s Fate in Fast & Furious Main Franchise
The direct with most Fast movies under his belt told EW about the Letty death situation. He said, “I could tell you that it was for real. I remember we made that commitment and then we started shooting the land train, and that was my first time working with Michelle, and I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I love working with her and we’re going to kill her? I’m responsible for that?’ And so, I was torn.”
Justin explained how much he loved working with the actress but at that moment it made sense to kill of one of the main characters of the series but it did not lessen the blow for him. “Even shooting it, I was just like, ‘God.’ It felt like it was the right call for the movie, but then at the same time, I’m beating myself up going, ‘Oh, man, I love her so much. She is just so great to work with,” he explained.
Michelle Rodriguez and Letty were back soon and it was a good move in everyone’s part to bring the actress and the character back. With a whole lot of testosterone on display, there needed to be more ladies to balance it all out. And Michelle has also been a vocal proponent of giving the ladies more to do in these type of movies which has improved her involvement in Fast & Furious 9, or so we are told.
The Letty actress is happy and she even floated an all female ensemble Fast & Furious movie. Being one of the biggest players of the franchise, it is nice seeing Michelle Rodriguez flourish. Even an on-camera death could not prevent her from coming back, now Justin Lin has the pleasure of working with her in 3 more movies.
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Dominic Toretto Fast & Furious Justin Lin Letty Michelle Rodriguez Vin Diesel
Last modified: May 28, 2021
