Han’s return in F9 fulfilled a demand from fans, but it came at the expense of doing serious damage to the Fast and Furious franchise. Han Lue (Sung Kang) was introduced in Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, quickly becoming a fan-favorite character and carrying the franchise’s third entry, without Dominic Toretto or Brian O’Connor to rely on. The ending of Tokyo Drift also revealed that Han was an old friend of Dom’s, which allowed the character to return in some of the series’ subsequent movies, despite having been killed in Tokyo Drift.

Han proved to be such a popular character that the entire Fast and Furious timeline was made needlessly complicated in order to allow him to appear in the entries four through six, explaining that they all take place before the events of Tokyo Drift. There was subsequently some retconning to make it so Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) was responsible for Han’s death, introducing the new villain in an epic way. However, following considerable fan backlash, more retconning allowed Han to return, albeit in a ridiculous way that changed the franchise for the worse.

As Popular As Han Is, His F9 Return Didn’t Make Sense

The Retconning Damaged The Character Of Han

The fan backlash over Han’s death was understandable, given the popularity of the character. The reveal that Shaw was the one driving the car that presumably killed Han was a fun reveal in Furious 7, but the problem came with how Shaw was then developed as a character. Shaw ended up as one of several Fast and Furious villains who became heroes as he returned in Fate of the Furious, now working alongside Dom and his crew, leading to his own spinoff movie as a hero alongside Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) with Hobbs and Shaw.

Fans were not happy to see the Fast Family suddenly hanging out with and being cordial with the man who killed one of their friends, and it felt as though Han’s death was being forgotten. This led to a campaign among fans demanding #JusticeForHan, and the creators of the Fast and Furious franchise listened. As a result, Han was brought back in F9, with his entire death being revealed as a fakeout orchestrated by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell).

The Fast And Furious Franchise In Chronological Order

It is explained that Han was actually working on a secret mission for Mr. Nobody, protecting a valuable piece of tech from falling into the wrong hands while also overseeing young Elle. In order to keep them both protected, Mr. Nobody helped plan the fake death of Han, which just so happened to coincide with Shaw seeking revenge. As a result, Han was able to go into hiding until he emerged in F9 to help his old friends.

It is another piece of retconning in the Fast and Furious franchise that simply falls apart under the weight of its ridiculous exposition. The details of the perfectly planned takeout death are hard enough to believe, and rewatching the scene in either Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift or Furious 7, it is clear that things did not go down the way that F9 suggests. However, more than that, it feels completely ridiculous when looking back on Han’s character in Tokyo Drift.

That movie presents Han as an easygoing and cool street racer with not a care in the world other than winning the next race. To have to accept that he was also secretly working as an international spy in order to save the world is asking too much from audiences. Ironically, in demanding “Justice for Han,” they forced the franchise to completely ruin what they initially loved about the character.

Han Coming Back Made Death Almost Meaningless In Fast & Furious

Fast And Furious Brought Back Han And Lost Its Stakes

Death in the Fast and Furious movies had previously been a little hard to take seriously after the soap opera-like storyline of Letty’s fake death and subsequent amnesia in Fast and Furious 6. However, Han’s return pushed things too far and ruined a lot of the stakes in these movies. While it is exciting to see Dom and his crew on these dangerous missions around the world, it is hard to elicit thrills from the audience when they have made it so that death means nothing.

Han’s death in Tokyo Drift made for a truly surprising moment in the franchise as well as an emotional one. Opening Furious 7 with the idea that Shaw was responsible for killing Han helped make it seem like the heroes were facing a very real threat. Undoing all of that not only takes away from those moments but also damages the storytelling in these movies in a way that they will not recover from.

As Fast X brought the franchise closer to its conclusion, it sought to raise the stakes in terms of what Dom and the others were facing. This included the apparent death of Jakob Toretto (John Cena) as well as a cliffhanger in Fast X that suggests Tej, Roman, Ramsey, and Han could also have been killed. However, the Fast and Furious franchise has already proven to fans that they are afraid to permanently kill any major characters, so it leaves no reason for fans to feel anything about the fates of these characters.

The Fast & Furious Franchise Repeated Its Han Mistake With Gisele

Han And Gisele’s Reunion Is Not Worth The Franchise Becoming So Ridiculous

While some fans found Han’s return to be a “jump the shark” moment for the Fast and Furious franchise, it didn’t take them long to make that jump again. Just one movie after the ridiculous return of Han, Fast X brought back another seemingly ᴅᴇᴀᴅ character with Gisele (Gal Gadot) revealed to have been alive. Not only that, but she shows up in a submarine, suggesting that, like Han, she has secretly been a superspy in the subsequent years.

The return of Gisele gives more opportunities to bring justice to Han, as Han and Gisele could get a happy ending after their tragic end in Fast and Furious 6. However, that little bit of fan service is not nearly enough to justify doing this death fakeout yet again. Gisele was killed off because Han was about to be killed off, and their story together had to end. With them deciding that Han is alive, Gisele’s death was now unnecessary, and she can be brought back. However, that doesn’t mean she should be.

Fast and Furious 11 will presumably be the final movie in this beloved franchise. While there is something to be said about having so many of the popular characters back together one last time, the final movie now has to take time out to explain the most certainly absurd explanation as to how Gisele got from being thrown from a speeding car to piloting a submarine.

There is no way this explanation will be satisfying, and it already brings up too many questions. Gisele was seemingly killed when she fell from her car on a runway. It is not as if her body would have been hard to find. Did Han and the others not think it was odd that her body just disappeared? Did they not look for it to give her a burial? No reunion between Han and Gisele is worth having to ignore the absurdity of her return.