Fast X ended on a cliffhanger, leaving many characters’ fates in the air and several new revelations unexplained. Louis Leterrier’s tenth installment in the famous Fast & Furious series takes a different route in the new danger Dom Toretto has been thrown into. He introduces a new, insane, and manic antagonist who drives vengeance against Dom and his team. Dante Reyes seeks revenge on Dom for killing his father back in Rio De Janeiro during the events of Fast Five.

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And he has nearly succeeded. A huge improvement on previous antagonists in the series, Dante kills and tortures for sport and will not relent or limit himself for exploding entire cities up to test Dom and his team. Though Dom and his gang are at it again, Dante successfully breaks them up in the first few minutes and begins picking them up individually.

The fiasco and chaos it follows end up with death, deceit, and peril. It also opens up doors for reunions and unlikely alliances – if they are to survive. Will they? What did fast Fast X do to set up the next installment? And how did Dante break Dom in another grand adventure in the Fast & Furious franchise, which sets up an exciting opening for the culminating trilogy?

Dante’s plan – Breaking Dom apart

Dante is not your regular antagonist. He seeks vengeance but comes prepared after a decade of research and follow-up on Dom’s team. He didn’t go after Dom immediately; instead, he followed his mission and rooted out each team member’s weaknesses. And realizing Dom has only stood tall with his family beside him, he breaks them up. He sends Han (Sunk Kang), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), Tej (Chris Bridges), and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) into a trap he orchestrates in Rome. Once the team is there, he releases a neutron bomb lost in the city’s foothills, leading Dom, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), and Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood) into a race against that bomb’s explosion. The firepower it unleashes results in the blast that luckily doesn’t cause casualties, but Dante successfully frames Dom and his team for the ordeal.

Now, the Agency denounces the team in light of Dom’s current criminal status. Therefore, they all have to fend for themselves without support. That is just the first step of Dante’s plan. He strikes first right at the team’s most solid advantage. Since they can’t watch each other’s back anymore, things are more challenging than ever. Through his years of work on Dom and preparation to launch the battle against him, he is one step ahead during the whole scenario, and Dom is unready to face off a manic sociopath like Dante.

The Shaw family – Will we see Owen Shaw return?

Magdalene Shaw (Helen Mirren) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) make brief appearances in Fast X. After being framed for the “terrorist attack” in Rome, Han reaches out to Deckard Shaw for help. The team needs some gear, and with Dom away and the Agency acting against them, they couldn’t think of anyone else. However, they are surprised by some mercenaries from the Agency whom they battle in another fistfight. Following that, they assemble, and Ramsey figures out that all of Dom’s known associates are on target, including Magdalene Shaw. Aware of an impending danger to his mother, Shaw offers the team some help and leaves to save Magdalene.

Who’s coming for Magdalene and how Deckard will prevent it has yet to be shown. It is expected to be unraveled during the next part of the series. It will act as both a sequel and side-sequel to Fast X. Deckard’s intervention in an imminent attack on his mother will surely make for a long fight sequence. There are chances of Luke Evans returning to his role of Owen Shaw. He last appeared in The Fate of the Furious and helped out Dom alongside his brother to save his son. Now that his mother’s life is at stake, and there’s no one else to trust, he will likely join his brother in force first to save Magdalene and eventually help Dom.

Who is Tess, and where is Mr. Nobody?

Brie Larson’s character, Tess, is Mr. Nobody’s daughter. She has been a part of the Agency alongside her father for years. In Fast X, Mr. Nobody has disappeared in exile, leaving Dom no allies in the Agency. However, it’s possible that he was either removed or incapacitated in a plan that Dante may or may not have orchestrated. Dante claims he has forever followed Dom’s associates and has every information about his past missions, strengths, and weaknesses.

It’s possible that, like Magdalene and Dante also targeted Mr. Nobody and successfully removed him from the equation. Dante knew if Mr. Nobody had been in charge of the Agency, he would have helped Dom with all his resources and backed him in the chaos. He may return in the following two films as the cliffhanger Fast X leaves us with unravels.

It’s the most plausible theory because, per a shocking reveal at the end, Dante always had his hands in Agency, giving him the firsthand opportunity to take down Mr. Nobody.

Aimes took down Mr. Nobody & helped Dante

In the last five minutes, Dom faces Dante and stands with all his strength, with his friends almost reaching for help. But, an RPG rocket, in typical Fast & Furious style, shoots down the plane carrying Dom’s team. Shockingly, it is Aimes (Alan Ritchson) who does so. Aimes is the new Agency chief who has taken over from Mr. Nobody. Though initially expressing resentment, Aimes join forces with him in the middle of the film and takes him to save his son while Dante approaches him from the other end. But, in this reveal, Aimes turns out to be a long-term friend of Dante’s, who has helped him build a plan to execute against Dom at the right time.

Removing Mr. Nobody was the first step in these partners’ plan, leaving Aimes in charge of the arsenal Dom could have used to his aid. Aimes initially helped break up the family by sending Han, Ramsey, Tej, and Roman on a fake mission in Rome. He initiated the terrorism charges against the team, making them wanted criminals. And Aimes deprived the group of all the help by sending them Agency mercs across the globe to take down their allies.

His motives for siding with Dante are unclear. It could be money. It could be power. Guess we’ll find out in the next film.

Is Jakob alive?

In Fast X, Dom is on the verge of being taken down in an explosive collision. Seeing no other option, his brother Jakob (John Cena) jumps up to collide his car with the others to save Dom and his son, sacrificing his life. Jakob’s goes up in flames, seemingly confirming his death.

But it’s not the first time a team member of Dom’s has inexplicably survived. Han returned from his apparent death most unusually. It’s Fast & Furious, and family can’t die, especially when you’re a part of Dom’s direct family. Moreover, Jakob’s death was pretty anti-climactic, and since we didn’t see his body, there’s a chance he survived the explosion. We say that with a high degree of confidence, because Jakob’s survival is easier to explain than another former family member revealed in the climactic cliffhanger of Fast X.

Welcome back, Gal Gadot

It had to be done, given the storyline errors that Fast & Furious has blatantly ignored all these years. In Fast & Furious 6, in his last attempts to execute his evil plan, Owen Shaw’s actions lead to Gisele Yasher’s (Gal Gadot) death. Gisele is Han’s girlfriend and has been a part of Dom’s team for a while. Her death leads Han to leave for Japan, where he is ‘killed’ by Deckard in a planned accident, as shown in the events of Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift.

But, in The Fate of the Furious, Dom seeks help from the two brothers who killed two of his close friends. How could he break bread with the people who murdered his family? The franchise eventually changed course to explain that and brought Han from the dead. So, why not just have Gisele back as well, paving the path for the team to ‘forgive’ Owen and, thus, reuniting the Shaw brothers with the team against Dante?

What’s yet to be explained is why Gisele has been in touch with Cipher, another archenemy of Dom’s who has tried killing him twice, not to mention killed his son’s mother. Whatever bizarre reason Fast & Furious 11 writes off to explain Gisele’s survival, it will be about family.

Dom’s union with Cipher could mean another return from the dead

At this point, it is an exaggeration. But let’s discuss it for the sake of its possibility. It’s illogical, but then, we are talking about Fast & Furious, which has made fans fall in love with its superheroic visuals despite ignoring everything that makes sense. So Cipher has somehow formed an unlikely union with Letty by the film’s end. She has been working with Gisele for God knows how long. And now, she might ally with Dom. However, she killed Elena (Elsa Pataky) point-blank in front of Dom.

Until now, every alliance with a previous antagonist has meant a person has surprisingly risen from their grave. Could it be that Elena didn’t really die? And now that Cipher and Dom are friends, is it time to expand the family again? Hopefully, that doesn’t happen because that would highly overdo the previous films and will essentially discard whatever progression they offered to the franchise.

Luke Hobbs returns

Setting aside his differences with Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson has returned to Fast & Furious as Luke Hobbs. Reprising his role in a mid-credits sequence, Dwayne Johnson has confirmed that he’ll play an essential role in the following films. Hobbs was the one who gunned down Dante’s father in Fast Five, putting him as Dante’s primary target alongside Dom. However, Hobbs doesn’t fear him and is ready to face him ahead.

Dom needs a strong ally right now who could provide him with backup and resources. As a part of law enforcement, Hobbs can offer Dom the help he needs to raise arms against Dante. Dante has been ahead of Dom because of the high-tech arsenal at his side, and Dom now needs to level the field. Fast & Furious 11 will mark the ultimate reunion of the family with Hobbs returning to Dom’s side, thus making it a fully packed action adventure.

How does Fast X set up Fast & Furious 11?

The plot is right there. Hobbs returns to help Dom. Cipher, Gisele, and Letty may take the fight to Dante from a different front. Now that Aimes has ousted himself as an ally of Dante’s, Tess has the chance to take back the Agency and, maybe, relocate her father. The rest of the team also can’t just die in crashes and explosions. There may also be a Fast & Furious 12, so the characters’ arcs can’t end here just yet.

But, yes, the eleventh part would feature some events that occurred by the side of Fast X, such as Letty and Cipher’s escape, Jakob’s possible survival, and Hobbs’ whereabouts during Fast X. It would only be in the final film that the group will properly regroup and launch an ultimate strike against this new ruthless rival, ending the series with Dom’s family bigger and stronger than it ever was.