Director Justin Lin's Tokyo Drift marked a turning point for the Fast and Furious movies, which is why it's never received a direct sequel. In its original form, the film would've followed series lead Dominic Toretto (who'd been absent from the second Fast & Furious movie, 2 Fast 2 Furious) as he travels to Tokyo to investigate the death of an old acquaintance and learns the art of drifting. Due to the disappointing reactions to 2 Fast 2 Furious, Universal later decided to change things up and - in a bid to appeal to series newcomers - make Tokyo Drift more of a standalone installment featuring new characters and a non-American setting.
Releases in 2006, Tokyo Drift went on to become the lowest-grossing Fast & Furious movie to date and was initially perceived as a disappointment. However, in the years since then, it's come to be regarded as one of the more essential installments thanks to its introduction of the fan-favorite character Han Lue (Sung Kang), and that convinced Universal to make another sequel (based on the enthusiastic responses to his appearance). It was also the first film in the series to be directed by Lin and written by Chris Morgan, both of whom would go on to shape the storytelling style and aesthetics of the Fast & Furious brand moving forward.
After that, and the other stars of the original Fast and the Furious (Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster) to make 2009's Fast & Furious, which reversed the series' downward trend at the box office. As Han had seemingly perished during Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious was set prior to the events of that film, allowing the character to share the screen with Dom and his family for the first time. The two sequels that followed, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, continued to builds towards Tokyo Drift, before Furious 7 finally caught up to that film (as Fast & Furious 6 revealed it would during its post-credits scene).
By the time Furious 7 arrived in 2015, the Fast & Furious property had fully transitioned from a series of crime-thrillers about illegal street racing into a collection of heist movies, espionage adventures, and other covert missions featuring Dom and his extended family of outlaws. As a result, the story threads from Tokyo Drift were largely abandoned, and the actual film never got a proper continuation. That's not to say the franchise started to pretend like the movie had never happened; far from it, Tokyo Drift star Lucas Black reprised his role as Sean Boswell in Furious 7 and Han will make his much-anticip (following his previous appearances in Fast & Furious 4-6).
Between all that and Lin and Morgan's involvement behind the camera on subsequent Fast & Furious installments, it's fair to say Tokyo Drift continues to have a significant influence on the franchise to this day. While it might not be the most revolutionary chapter when it comes to the brand's ongoing evolution (arguably, it saved Fast & Furious from being banished to the realm of direct-to-video fare back in the mid-2000s. Much like Dom and Han, Tokyo Drift has come a long way from its relatively humble beginnings and established a legacy few people (if anyone) could've predicted it would have.
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