The Fast and Furious franchise as we know it now is a far cry from the action movies it originated from. What were once mid-level thriller movies are now blockbusters. One particular fork in the road that could’ve sent Dom and co down a very different path involved Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson being up for a role.
John Singleton, the director of 2 Fast 2 Furious, revealed to CinemaBlend when the adventure movie was coming out that 50 Cent auditioned for the role of Tej Parker, now played by Ludacris. “We auditioned 50 Cent,” he said. “Ja Rule was supposed to play the role and we had a deal with Ja Rule but Ja Rule at the time he thought he was bigger than he was – in many ways – and he turned us down.”
Losing out on both was a blessing in disguise, as it led Singleton to giving Ludacris, who was up for another part, the role. “I told Ludacris, ‘You should audition for this other part’,” Singleton states, “and he really rocked the audition. It was all about Ludacris after that.”
The rest is history. Ludacris has been a staple Fast and Furious character ever since, featuring in eight of the nine mainline instalments thus far.
But what could have been, right? If 50 Cent got the role, and kept it, we might have lost out on his Power TV series. Maybe life a quarter mile at a time wouldn’t be much different, or maybe it could’ve been a whole other kind of wild and spectacular. We’ll never know!
What we do know, is that the Fast and Furious 10 release date is coming round the bend a little more every day. Check out our guide to the best Netflix movies for something to bide the time.