Despite the success of the first 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift, despite filming an uncredited cameo in the latter.
Eventually, Fast & Furious, and he continues to build a universe with heart, fast cars, and increasingly ludicrous action. Nonetheless, this is what could’ve happened, had Diesel chosen to stay away.
Toretto’s Family Would Get In Less Trouble
Toretto may wax lyrical about keeping his family out of danger, but he sure does get them into a lot of trouble. His dogged attempts to find Letty Ortiz’s (Michelle Rodriguez) killer in Fast & Furious results not only in dragging Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) back into the criminal underworld but his own incarceration. The resulting prison break dragged in Furious 7 as Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) seeks revenge on Dom’s crew.
Later, Dom’s link to Cipher (Charlize Theron) gets Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) and his own son kidnaped in - madly rumored to involve time travel - will almost certainly be triggered by something to do with Dom, and it’s unlikely that something will be anything good. Without Diesel there is no Dom and without Dom the rest of the characters in the Fast & Furious franchise may well have been left in peace.
Jason Statham Doesn’t The Fast & Furious
Had Vin Diesel never returned, Dom Toretto would never have sought out Letty. Letty’s back-story, involving Luke Shaw, would’ve never come to and Dom would’ve never played a role in seeing Owen Shaw thrown from a moving plane. This chain of events needed to happen for Owen Shaw’s brother to exist and seek revenge. Audiences may never have even met Deckard Shaw, likely leaving Jason Statham out of the franchise. The iconic British actor swaggered into the Fast & Furious franchise as a main character like it was made for him. Without Diesel, this may have never happened.
Michelle Rodriguez Wouldn’t Return
Diesel’s intention of bringing heart back into the franchise after Tokyo Drift has been successful and his persistent advocation for "family" is tightly woven into the franchise. It’s almost certain that Diesel’s sentimentality saw him bring back the old crew when producing the script for the fourth film. Top of that list: Letty Ortiz. Toretto’s eventual wife and original love interest – Ortiz – was also absent from both 2 Fast 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift. While Letty has always been the engine that drives Toretto, Rodriguez has taken issue with the franchise several times, while consistently being backed up by Diesel. It’s unlikely that audiences would’ve seen her again without Diesel’s input in curating the franchise.
The Franchise Would’ve Avoided Tangling With The Government
The original The Fast & Furious wasn’t over-the-top ridiculous and was a relatively low-key action film, focused on inhabiting the world of real-world street racing. 2 Fast 2 Furious was a fairly tepid sequel, but it still kept its feet fairly placed in reality. Tokyo Drift expanded the franchise while exploring the real-world street racing niche of drifting. It’s pretty clear that as soon as Diesel returned, the ridiculous factor ramped up pretty quick. Championing bombastic action, impossible stunts, and ludicrous set-pieces, Diesel seems intent at throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. It’s irable, to throw realism in the bin and try and give the audiences a true thrill-ride, but it would’ve been interesting to see how the universe would’ve evolved without him.
Not only was Vin Diesel clearly responsible for Fast & Furious' big changes and ramping up the franchise's action, but his character was the one who led his rag tag group of car thieves into helping Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), and it was Toretto who was coerced into working for Cipher. Combine these plot devices with an increasingly nutty penchant for unbelievable set-pieces and you have a franchise that has fallen away from street racing into the realm of spies, world-ending super weapons, and nuclear submarines. Diesel is arguably responsible for leading both the franchise and his character to tangle with the government, something that could've been avoided without him.
Justin Lin Wouldn’t Have Quit Fast X
If Diesel is responsible for the feel of the Fast universe, Fast & Furious 6. He stepped out briefly and then returned for F9 and was meant to be back for Fast X, but then a very public blow-out that almost certainly involved Diesel saw Lin leave the franchise for good. Lin said that working with Diesel was difficult and claimed the actor didn't know his lines. It seems that without Diesel the franchise might've kept Lin, but it's not clear what difference that would've made to the tenth film in the franchise.
Could The Fast & Furious Franchise Continue Without Diesel
The simple answer is yes, because it has already happened. Producers of the first sequel hadPitch Black instead of returning, Walker stepped up and the franchise continued. It continued further with Tokyo Drift and while it wasn't particularly well received, the franchise remained popular with a younger teenage audience. A franchise without Diesel is possible, it just probably wouldn't have been any good.
Who Could've Led Fast & Furious Instead Of Vin Diesel (Paul Walker Or The Rock?)
Diesel would’ve left some pretty big shoes to fill had he decided to leave the Fast saga, as the excitement of a potential solo Dom Toretto film speaks to the strength of his character. If the franchise were to continue, there are several candidates to fill those shoes. Paul Walker would’ve been the most obvious choice, as he comfortably starred in 2 Fast 2 Furious without Diesel. While it wasn’t the smash hit some hoped it would be, that had little to do with the character of Brian O’Connor. The former cop turned fugitive found himself planning a garage with Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) at the end of the sequel. With a clean slate and charismatic presence, the future of the franchise could’ve easily been led by Walker as O’Connor.
Tragically, Paul Walker ed away in 2013. Even if Diesel had never returned, Walker would’ve been able to carry the torch only so far. If forced to look elsewhere there is another who matches Diesel in stature and arguably bests him in charisma: The Rock. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson first appeared in the Fast saga during 2011’s Fast Five. The hulking and imposing Luke Hobbs oozed lead actor energy, much like The Rock himself. If things had gone well, a Rock-led Fast and Furious film may have been on the cards. As it happens, he had a pretty big falling out with Diesel and left the franchise after The Fate of the Furious. He has however returned to Hobbs, playing him in Hobbs and Shaw and is set to play him again in a future sequel. If Diesel ever fully leaves the franchise, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that The Rock could return.
