One of the biggest fan-favorite characters in the entire Fast & Furious franchise is Han Seoul-Oh, played by actor Sung Kang. The character died in Tokyo Drift, but he was such a hit with fans that writer Chris Morgan decided to alter the entire series’ timeline in order to incorporate him into more movies in the saga.

The franchise has since closed the loop and passed beyond Han’s death, but Morgan has hinted that there’s a chance we might see him again.



Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with Morgan about The Fate of the Furious, and while our full interview will be published next week, I wanted to pull out one particularly interesting piece of our conversation that I think will be of interest to Fast fans everywhere.

Are we ever going to loop back around in the timeline and see Han again? Chris Morgan: “Now, that’s funny because I’ve actually been thinking about that a lot. So it’s interesting that you and I are on the same wavelength there. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. I love Sung – he’s one of my favorite people on the planet.”

So is Han in Fast 9? Morgan’s response isn’t exactly a confirmation, but the fact that the franchise’s primary writer has been thinking about that character again is significant. And considering the pretzel twists in this saga’s timeline already, it certainly wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility to loop back around for another encounter with him. After all, the character already has a history even before the Fast and Furious franchise.

Better Luck Tomorrow, Yesterday

Han first appeared in another movie before Tokyo Drift. Director Justin Lin (Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6) cast Kang as “Han Hu” in his 2002 coming-of-age crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow. Han was a thief who smoked constantly, and as he moved into the Fast movies, he quit smoking and started snacking on food to keep his hands busy instead.

Universal doesn’t consider Better Luck Tomorrow to be an official part of their franchise, but Lin and Kang acknowledge that Kang plays the same character in both properties. In the Fast films, the character is known as “Han Seoul-Oh,” a shout-out to Star Wars smuggler Han Solo, but Lin has gone on the record saying that’s a fake ID, so we never learn his real last name.

How Could Han Return?

Since this film series has already resurrected one of its main characters (Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty), I wouldn’t expect Morgan to return to that well and also bring Han back from the dead. There’s no way Han could have survived the explosion in Shibuya, and bringing him back would rob Furious 7 of much of its emotional power, since a lot of that film is about how the group reacts to Han’s death. It’d be like bringing Agent Phil Coulson back in a Marvel movie; his death greatly affected the characters in The Avengers, and bringing him back now would retroactively make that movie worse.

The more likely option would be to see Han in a flashback, potentially revealing some key piece of information that would help the #family in a future mission. Or, knowing what we know about Han’s backstory, maybe there’s a story to be told about his life before Tokyo Drift, and how he got the name “Han Seoul-Oh” to begin with.

So let’s hear it, Fast fans: do you want to see Han get in the driver’s seat in this franchise again?