Charlize Theron Leading All-Female Franchise Spin-Off?

By Michileen Martin | Published

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The release of Fast X — the first of two films meant to conclude the main Fast and Furious story — is still 6 months away, but that hasn’t stopped Charlize Theron from responding to speculation she’ll soon be leading her own spinoff. The Mad Max: Fury Road star didn’t commit to much when asked, but she did express confidence in the “Family” man himself Vin Diesel moving Heaven and Earth as a producer. At the same time, an interview with a Universal big-wig has some thinking if/when the spinoff comes, it will be with an all-woman cast.

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter this week, Charlize Theron was told that her Fast X co-star Vin Diesel had already said he had writers working on a spinoff for her and asked if there was “[a]ny movement.” Theron answered, “Listen, as a producer, I take my hat off. That f–king guy built something with Universal that very few people will ever build in their entire life.”

“You don’t drag an audience with you for that long,” Charlize Theron continued. “Whatever you think of those movies, you have to be an idiot not to be like, ‘That’s a f–king accomplishment.’ So, we’ll see.”

As you can no doubt tell, very little in what the actress said actually addresses the question beyond the “So, we’ll see,” but that alone says a lot. If nothing else, we know Charlize Theron isn’t against the idea.

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Charlize Theron and Vin Diesel in The Fate of the Furious (2017)

At the same time, a quote from October has some wondering if this upcoming Charlize Theron led spinoff will be an all woman cast. Asked by Business Insider what she would like to see in the future of the Fast and Furious, Universal Pictures film chief Donna Langley singled out the notion of an all-female film.

“I would love to see a female Fast,” Langley said. “So would Vin [Diesel]. We have so many great and amazing female characters in our franchise and now there’s the new addition of Brie Larson to add to the incredible roster.”

Nor is Brie Larson the only actress to make her franchise debut in Fast X. Along with Charlize Theron, Michelle Rodriguez, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, and Helen Mirren all reprising their Fast and Furious roles; it will see the first appearances of new characters played by Rita Moreno (West Side Story) and Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad).

Whether or not Charlize Theron gets to lead an all-female Fast and Furious spinoff, these days she’s attached a lot more blockbuster franchises than when she won her Oscar for 2003’s Monster. Along with her upcoming appearance in Fast X; she’s leading her own action franchise on Netflix with a sequel to 2020’s The Old Guard in post-production, she joined the MCU in this year’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as the sorceress Clea, and she even had a cameo as herself in Season 3 of The Boys. While it will be Anya Taylor-Joy playing a younger version of Theron’s character in the upcoming prequel Furiosa, we’ve learned she may not be done with the Mad Max franchise just yet.