'Fast X' trailer teases a villainous Jason Momoa and 'the end of the road'

Vin Diesel is back in the new trailer for Universal's "Fast X," the first of two planned "final" films for Dominic Toretto & Co. But where do you go after you’ve taken a $6-billion action franchise about L.A. street racers all the way to space?

In the "Fast" saga, you dig up your greatest hits: supercharged set pieces, explosions galore, car races, familiar faces, new friends and a raging new villain — played by Jason Momoa — with a secret vendetta. And, of course: #family.

And for those among us who just want to glimpse the franchise's signature physics-defying action, there's also Dom Toretto at the wheel driving into the sky fighting two helicopters at the same time.

"You wanted to return to the streets of L.A., you wanted to return to racing and what that feels like, you wanted to return to the cars that made this franchise what it is," Diesel told fans Thursday night at a "Fast X" event at L.A. Live, where he led a brief chant of his own name ("Diesel, Diesel, Diesel") before the nearly four-minute trailer was unveiled. "Fast X" hits theaters May 19. Watch the full trailer here:

A one-minute version will air during Sunday's Super Bowl, Diesel added.

The producer-star was joined at the lavish event by "Fast" co-stars Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Sung Kang, who skipped down memory lane revisiting their long tenures in the franchise and teased "Fast X," the 10th film in the main series and the 11th overall "Fast and Furious" flick.

As one of Hollywood's biggest ongoing franchises, the "Fast" films have seen plenty of public and private conflicts — the most recent example being last year, when longtime franchise architect Justin Lin quit "Fast X" a week into production, reportedly over creative differences.

Lin's name went conspicuously unmentioned during the "Fast X" trailer event, but trailers for the five installments he directed — "The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift" (2006), "Fast & Furious" (2009), "Fast Five" (2011), "Fast & Furious 6" (2013) and "F9" (2021) — played during the hour-long program recapping "Fast" history.

Praising Diesel's passion for the films, Rodriguez referred with seemingly unplanned candor to the challenges of keeping the blockbuster franchise going.

"It’s hard, because there’s lots of cooks in the kitchen," she said. "When you’ve got a franchise that makes that much money, everybody’s got an opinion about it, everybody’s trying to cut corners and doesn’t want to pay this one this much and that one that much… but at the end of the day, it all comes down to story. And if we mess that dance up, it’s all over."

During an interview with Variety on the red carpet, Diesel compared making the “Fast” saga to “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien writing his Middle-earth classics. “There’s a reason why Tolkien stopped writing after a while,” said Diesel. “It’s so hard to continue mythologies.”

Later, Gibson compared Diesel to "Jesus himself," jokingly thanked fans for risking their lives to see "F9" "at the height of a pandemic," revealed the cast group text chains that go "flying" in moments of infighting and pointed out Lin's replacement, Louis Leterrier ("The Transporter," "The Incredible Hulk"), in the crowd to welcome him to the "Family."

“Fast X” sees Diesel's Dom return to lead his crew against a nefarious new enemy, Dante (Momoa), who is hellbent on destroying the #family that Toretto so loves. But wait — there’s a twist!

Borrowing from the franchise’s introduction of Jason Statham’s heel-turned-hero Deckard Shaw — who waltzed into the credits of “Fast & Furious 6” by revealing that he killed Kang’s beloved Han in the retconned events of the third film, “Tokyo Drift,” as revenge for his brother's hospitalization — Momoa’s Dante has a secret family history of his own. (Pro tip: Cue up your rewatch of 2011’s “Fast Five.”)

The “Fast X” trailer reveals that Dante is the previously unknown son of Brazilian kingpin Hernan Reyes, who was taken out by the Toretto crew in “Fast Five,” and that he's been waiting 12 years to exact his vengeance.

Dom’s 8-year-old son Brian (Leo Abelo Perry) will be caught in the crosshairs of Dante’s plot, which will send Dom’s familia scattered across the globe and bring old enemies back, including Charlize Theron’s Cipher, seen brawling with Rodriguez’s Letty in the trailer.

Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, John Cena, Scott Eastwood, Helen Mirren and Statham also return as “Fast X” tees up an enemies-to-friends bromance (the Dominic Toretto special) between Han, recently returned from the grave in “F9,” and the man who tried to kill him.

Brie Larson joins the cast as rogue Agency operative Tess alongside Alan Richtson, Daniela Melchior and Rita Moreno as Dom, Mia and Jakob’s Abuelita Toretto.

“Running used to be about winning. We raced for respect," Dom says in the trailer, acknowledging that the stakes have skyrocketed since his crew's days of undercover cops and robbers drag racing muscle cars and imports on the streets of Los Angeles. "Today, I race to stop a bloodbath.”

The film is written by Justin Lin, Zach Dean and Dan Mazeau based on characters by Gary Scott Thompson and is produced by Neal H. Moritz, Diesel, Lin, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Samantha Vincent.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.