Facts and the furious: 8 things you didn't know about the Fast and the Furious franchise

The Fast and the Furious family is uniting once again for the eighth installment of the hit franchise, the Fate of the Furious, out April 14. Sixteen years into this beloved blockbuster series, Vin Diesel and company have crafted a universe of their own, one where cars can fly and love and brotherhood take precedence. With such expansive world-building, both on and off-screen, the Fast and the Furious world has accumulated a lot of interesting factoids and lore. But even the most attentive fans might have missed out on the following eight things.

1. There's even more Fast and Furious than you think

Although The Fate of the Furious is officially the eighth installment of the franchise, there's even more to it than that. In addition to the feature films, there are also two Fast and the Furious short films that were made in order to tie the timeline together.

Both can be found online: The Turbo-Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious is here, and Los Bandoleros, which takes place between the third and fourth films, is here:

2. Some cast members can't drive

Stars Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster didn't have their driver's licenses when they were cast for the first film. And they weren't the only ones: Nathalie Emmanuel, who first starred in Furious 7, currently doesn't have a driver's license, although she doesn't actually drive in either that film or The Fate of the Furious.

3. Bow Wow speaks Japanese

In The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Bow Wow learned Japanese for one scene, but it was ultimately cut from the movie. Thanks to the power of the internet, though, you can watch that deleted scene.

4. Han is a recycled character

Han, a popular character in the franchise, originally appeared in another film by director Justin Lin called Better Luck Tomorrow. Lin made some minor changes to the character played by Sung Kang, namely changing his full name from Han Lue to Han Seoul-Oh — get it?

5. The film has its own train tracks

For the train heist in Fast Five, the film company bought a 600-yard stretch of train tracks in Arizona and an entire train to destroy. That scene alone cost $25 million US to shoot, which was 20 per cent of the film's total production budget.

6. Rita Ora was fake

Rita Ora's cameo in Fast & Furious 6 was digitally inserted long after the filming of the scene. Vin Diesel himself suggested Ora for the role of the "head girl" of a street race between Diesel's Dom and Rodriguez's Letty.

7. The cars are definitely not for sale

All the cars from Furious 7 were destroyed as soon as they finished filming in order to prevent people from buying and using them. Producers of the film didn't want people to purchase and refurbish them with the intent to recreate dangerous scenes.

8. Vin Diesel worked for free

Vin Diesel rejected a $25 million US offer to return for the second Fast and the Furious movie to make xXx instead. For the third Fast and the Furious chapter, Diesel returned for a cameo — for free. The trade-off was that Diesel would obtain the rights to his Riddick character from Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick so that he could put out a third film in that franchise.

— Melody Lau, q digital staff