Unlike the first film in the series, 2 Fast received a very frosty critical reception, including two Golden Raspberry nominations for Worst Sequel and Worst Excuse For An Actual Movie, and while it outgrossed the first movie ($236 million versus $207), it also cost nearly twice as much. Brian recruits his old friend Roman Pierce (Gibson) and enlists the help of unorthodox mechanic Tej (Bridges) to take down drug kingpin Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). After going AWOL at the end of the previous film, we catch up with Walker in Miami, participating in the underground race scene there before being recruited by his former boss in the LAPD, now an FBI agent looking for ringers to go undercover to bust a drug cartel. Whatever the reason, the choice gave the film a clean break to tell a story barely related to the first film, the only tie being Brian O’Conner himself. It could be argued this gave the movie a plausible deniability for why Diesel’s Dom is missing in action. After being so taken by the depiction of LA car culture in the previous film, the action in 2 Fast was moved across the country and set in day-glo Miami. The strangest part about Singleton’s sole directing credit in the franchise is the setting of the film. Both actors would later become F&F mainstays. He also was responsible for the hiring of Tyrese Gibson, who had just worked on the film Baby Boy, as well as Chris “Ludacris” Bridges in his first major role. So when an opportunity came around to work on the sequel, he was quick to advocate for himself to helm the film. Singleton, often cited as responsible for bringing depictions of South Central Los Angeles to major motion pictures, was a huge fan of the original Fast and stated that he was disappointed that he didn’t think to make a movie about the LA car culture, a movement he himself participated in. (Cohen also turned down the project to work on xXx, another Vin Diesel vehicle.) Luckily, there was a surprising director who had expressed interest in the franchise: Boyz n the Hood’s John Singleton. The other major piece of the puzzle was finding a new director. Refocusing the franchise on Paul Walker’s shoulders. A script was written and presented to all key returning parties, but soon negotiations with Vin Diesel broke down, putting the whole production to a stand still.
After the surprise success of The Fast and the Furious, production was quickly circled up around what a sequel could be.