'F9', the ninth installment of Fast and Furious franchise's release date has been postponed to the year 2021 due to concerns regarding coronavirus outbreak. The film was set to be released on May 22, now will hit theatres in April 2021.
The official twitter handle of F9 in a statement said "We are moving the global release date to April 2021, with America opening on April 2.
#F9 pic.twitter.com/agQAFNLm9w
— #F9 (@TheFastSaga) March 12, 2020
"While we know there is a disappointment on having to wait a little while longer, this move is made with the safety of everyone as our foremost consideration", the statement added.
As per CNBC, presently theaters are closed in China and Italy. French cinemas are only open at 50 percent capacity and South Korea has seen its lowest box office tally in years. So far in the U.S., there has been no clear impact on the box office from the coronavirus
In February, Universal Studios released the trailer featuring Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and new entrant John Cena plays Dominic's own brother in as villain.
The other cast includes Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Charlize Theron, Michael Rooker, John Cena, and Helen Mirren, most of who are back from previous installments.
Interestingly, The Rock and Jason Statham who were part of Fast and Furious 8 won't be seen in F9 as they were seen in 'Hobbs and Shaw'. Remember the character Han who died in 'Tokyo Drift' edition, is officially back in F9.
In trailer Dominic is shown with a son named Brian and is heard saying "now that I'm a father, I can't live my life a quarter-mile at a time anymore". The son, Brain is named after the late co-star Paul Walker's character. F9 is directed by Justin Lin, who has also made the other four consecutive entries of the series - The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast And Furious, Fast Five and Fast And Furious 6.
