What is the best order to watch The Fast and the Furious movies?

Since 2001, The Fast and the Furious films have been roaring across movie screens, enticing audiences into cinemas and blowing up the box office in the process. The series has been hugely successful, and has brought in billions of dollars for Universal Pictures.

Due to the enduring popularity of the series, The Fast and the Furious brand has produced a collection of sequels, as well as a spin-off. But what is the best order to watch The Fast and the Furious films?

For all the speedy details and more, keep reading!

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The Fast and the Furious films in production order

First up, let’s take a look at production order, to highlight all of the films in The Fast and the Furious series – including the spin-offs and the shorts.

The Fast and the Furious series began in 2001 with the Vin Diesel/Paul Walker-starring, The Fast and the Furious. The story revolved around an undercover cop tasked with exposing the identities of a gang of carjackers.

The film was a financial hit and led to a sequel: 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. Walker returned for this entry, but Diesel declined, and it was another box office hit.

A third film arrived in 2006, but this time the action focused on a new cast of characters. Walker was missing from the cast, while Diesel only appeared in a brief cameo, reprising his role as Dominic Toretto at the conclusion of the movie.

For the fourth movie, Fast & Furious, both Walker and Diesel returned to the series full-time and this is where they remained through a fifth movie (which introduced Dwayne Johnson as a series regular), as well as a sixth.

Once again, movies five and six were huge hits and by this point the series had firmly cemented itself as a winner for Universal Pictures. As such, the series was set to continue with a seventh picture set to be released in 2014.

In September 2013, the seventh movie entered production with Walker, Diesel and Johnson all on board. But just two months later, during a Thanksgiving break in production, Walker was involved in a car accident and was killed.

Production was immediately put on hold and the future of the project became uncertain. However, in April 2014, production resumed and with assistance from Walker’s siblings, the movie was completed and Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner was retired from the series.

Furious 7 was released in 2015 and was a huge financial hit. The film paved the way for even more entries, including an eighth movie, The Fate of the Furious which arrived in 2017.

The eighth movie was then followed by a spin-off picture, Hobbs & Shaw. This film focused on Dwayne Johnson’s character, Luke Hobbs and did not include any involvement from Vin Diesel.

Moving forward, the series continued in 2021 with F9 and in 2023 with Fast X.

If you wish to watch The Fast and the Furious movies in production order, then you should watch them as follows:

• The Fast and the Furious (2001)
• 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
• Fast & Furious (2009)
• Fast Five (2011)
• Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
• Furious 7 (2015)
• The Fate of the Furious (2017)
• Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
• F9 (2021)
• Fast X (2023)
• Fast and Furious 11 (2024)

In addition to the movies listed above, two live-action shorts were also produced: The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Los Bandoleros (2009). These shorts were included on the home video releases of 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Fast & Furious (2009) and acted as prequel stories to each respective movie.

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The Fast and the Furious timeline order

While The Fast and the Furious movie series might seem fairly simple to navigate, there is a slightly different way of viewing the movies than the one set out above. You see, while The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift might have been the third film to be released, it actually sits after the events of Fast & Furious 6.

So, if you wish you watch The Fast and the Furious films in timeline order (and you wish to include the shorts), then watch the films as follows:

• The Fast and the Furious (2001)
• The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)*
• 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
• Los Bandoleros (2009)*
• Fast & Furious (2009)
• Fast Five (2011)
• Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
• Furious 7 (2015)
• The Fate of the Furious (2017)
• Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
• F9 (2021)
• Fast X (2023)
• Fast and Furious 11 (2024)

*Shorts

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So, which is the best order to watch The Fast & the Furious movies? In all honesty, it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference what order you watch the movies in, so long as you have a blast with them!

However, if you want the full experience, then follow the timeline order above, fire up your player, and don’t look back. Oh, and enjoy the ride!

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