One of Hollywood’s hottest big-screen franchises is preparing to zoom to the small screen, albeit with a big twist, when “The Fast and the Furious” comes to Netflix as an animated series.
As Variety reports, the new animated series is part of Netflix’s ongoing deal with Dreamworks Animation Television, and will follow the high-octane adventures of Tony Toretto, cousin of Dom (Vin Diesel), after he and his car-racing buddies are recruited by a government agency to go undercover and infiltrate a street-racing league that’s actually a front for a wide-ranging crime organization with designs on dominating the world.
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“We are excited to extend and expand out successful relationship with Netflix by not only delivering more high-quality DrewamWorks programming, but connecting fans of Universal films with fascinating new stories,” said DreamWorks Animation Television president Margie Cohn in a statement. “Our new home at Universal marks and exciting new chapter for storytelling at our studio, and ‘Fast & Furious’ is only the beginning.
Given that the “Fast & Furious” franchise continues to do blockbuster business at the box office — with the eight films in the series earning more than $5 billion — expanding into TV animation is a logical move.
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“We are thrilled to take our fantastic partnership with DreamWorks Animation to the next level with new opportunities from the vast library of Universal Pictures,” added Melissa Cobb, vice president of kids and family for Netflix. “The ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise is a global phenomenon beloved by audiences of all ages, and we can’t wait to get started on the new animated series that will capture the action, heart, humour and global appeal of the feature films.”
No word on when the new animated series will debut, but given the lead time required in animation, it likely won’t be anytime soon. Yet that didn’t prevent fans from responding to the news on social media.
