Why Jason Momoa’s Fast X Villain stopped me from giving up on the franchise entirely

The Fast and Furious The franchise has seen consistent declines in recent years, but it was Jason Momoa’s incredible villain who came forward Fast X This is what stopped me from giving up on the action franchise entirely. Faced with absurdity Fast and Furious What’s notable as a series is that it started off relatively low-key, a turn-of-the-millennium film about street racers trying to hijack electronic equipment from trucks. From Q9The Fast The crew flies into space.

Fast X isn’t a particularly great film, but it features one of the best villains ever Fast and Furious franchise, Dante Reyes, played by Jason Momoa. In fact, his performance is one of the highlights of the Fast & Furious series as a whole, as he creates a villain who marches to the beat of his own drum, setting himself apart from the plethora of villains that have come before. He is a revelation in Fast Xand deserves to be recognized among the greats of the series.

How Jason Momoa’s villain goes against the franchise norm

Dante Reyes is much more flamboyant than anything that has come before

The Fast and Furious The franchise is characterized above all by the hypermasculinity of its villains, which pushes our car-driving heroes to the edge of their capabilities in each increasingly crazy installment. For the 11th film in Fast and Furious Franchise, Fast X tries something a little different and uses the talents of Jason Momoa to play a very different kind of villain than before.

Compared to villains like the Shaw brothers or Herman Reyes, Momoa’s Dante Reyes is way more out there when it comes to mannerisms, strutting through every scene flamboyantly and with reckless glee. Momoa is a big man who regularly plays very cool characters in blockbuster action films.

Related

Who is in Fast X? Cast and Character Guide

In “Fast X,” Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodgriguez return as fan-favorite characters: Dominic Toretto and Letty Ortiz. But who else is in the cast?

He still stays cool in there Fast X as Dante Reyes, but he also shows how funny he is as an actor, peppering every scene with impeccable comedic timing and not worrying about how silly he might seem at any given moment. Dante Reyes is flamboyant. He likes to paint his nails lavender and pink and occasionally wears his hair in space buns. It’s a much-needed change from the confident villains of previous entries and works so well because of Momoa’s talent.

Jason Momoa is having the time of his life in Fast X

Momoa definitely understood the task

When Jason Momoa is allowed to embrace a character, he embraces it 100%, and his role as Dante Reyes is easily the most “open” he’s ever played as an actor. It’s clear Momoa is having the time of his life Fast XHe realizes how much fun these films can be when you don’t have to take yourself so seriously. Actually, Momoa may be the only actor in the film who knows how silly the franchise has becomeand it feels like he approaches his character with that knowledge.

It certainly feels that way to me, as Momoa is easily my favorite villain in the franchise, even though he doesn’t necessarily care about the film as a whole or where the franchise ended. Still, Momoa is so over the top compared to almost everyone else in the film, which is actually what makes his performance so good. Maybe it’s because it was his only appearance in the series Fast and Furious Franchise, but Momoa feels like he really loves being there, compared to the fatigue other actors feel in the later entries.

What Jason Momoa said about playing the villain in Fast X

It was “the funniest role” of his career

After working in other large franchises such as game of Thrones and the DCEU, It felt like it was only a matter of time before Jason Momoa appeared in a movie Fast and Furious filmconsidering how physically he feels like he fits right into this male world. In an interview with Rotten tomatoesMomoa claimed Dante Reyes was probably it “The funniest role I’ve ever played.” This definitely comes across in every scene he appears in Fast X, This really sets him apart from the other villains in the franchise and even most of the other characters he has played in his career.

A defining characteristic of Momoa’s villain in Fast X is how much style the character has and how it shows who they are as a person and as an opponent. In an interview on our website, Jason Momoa spoke in detail about how he wanted to portray Dante Reyes, right down to his wardrobe choices for the character throughout the film, explaining:

I attach great importance to wardrobe and props. It’s my lack of acting skills that I really need her help with. I put together a lot of this wardrobe with a costume designer, of course, but I just had a lot of ideas about what I wanted.

I feel like Flip, Trish had a pretty good handle on it, but I didn’t want there to be a lot of colors. I was really inspired by pastels. I wanted something that was warm and inviting, and then when you got close to it, you just said, “That’s the devil, and the devil tricked me.” So that was kind of the whole idea.

As the interview continued, Momoa delved into the psyche of Dante Reyes as a character, giving a pretty insightful look at the man beneath all the glamor and quirkiness, as Dom Torreto explains:

You sit in your imagination and come from a criminal family. My father was taken from me and then everything was taken from me. So not just that, but all of our money. He had to defend himself in Brazil. He simply spent much of his life obsessing over Dom and seeking revenge. Someone who had everything taken away from him just wanted to hurt himself in the worst possible way and take away his legacy.

Obviously it’s his child and his family is falling apart. So I don’t know. I feel like when you study someone so much, you actually want to be them, and you love them, and you want to wear their skin and become like them. You just play it like that and emotionally anything can come out of it. It can be funny, it can be sexy, it can be scary, but basically I will wear your skin.

Jason Momoa’s villain breathed some life into a fading franchise

The Fast & Furious franchise needed Jason Momoa

The Fast and Furious The franchise is one of the longest-running film series, with each entry following the same continuity and beginning over two decades ago The fasting and the angry in 2001. Since then, the franchise has grown to include 10 main entries and one spin-off, with most of the films in the series achieving considerable success. Still, 11 films in a single franchise is a lot and has been with, both critically and financially, since its peak in 2015 Angry 7, Each successive film saw diminishing returns, suggesting that the end of the franchise may finally be near.

Related

Who dies in Fast X (and whose fate is unknown)

The tenth Fast and Furious film delivers some surprising character fates. Here each Almost X death is explained and what happens to the rest.

Jason Momoa as the villain single-handedly brought me back into the franchise and gave the film more life and energy than it would have otherwise. It’s not a great (or even good) film by any means, but it’s a lot more fun than the previous two installments, and that’s all thanks to the charming style of Dante Reyes. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether Momoa will reprise his role as Dante in the 11th part of the series Fast and Furious franchise, although there is no clear narrative ending for the character Fast X.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over how great Momoa is as a villain Fast X. His flamboyant demeanor and over-the-top antics made for some of the most entertaining moments, not just in the film, but in the entire franchise. I would be there Fast and Furious franchise to continue producing films if Jason Momoa became a staple of the franchise, which doesn’t seem likely given that Fast X could well be his only appearance.

Your changes have been saved

My list

My favorite films
My watchlist

Vin Diesel and the family return to the events of Fast Five for the tenth installment of the Fast & Furious series. Fast X is part one of a two-part conclusion to the franchise.

Release date

May 19, 2023

Duration

141 minutes

director

Louis Leterrier

writer

Justin Lin, Dan Mazeau, Gary Scott Thompson

budget

340 million dollars

Studio(s)

Universal images

Sales partner

Universal images

Expand