Fast & Furious 9 might have been delayed to April 2021, but that just gives us extra time to speculate on the first trailer's big reveal: HAN IS BACK.
Sung Kang's fan favourite was killed off in Fast & Furious 6's credits scene by Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), which was technically his second death in the series as it was a retcon of the same scene in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
The first trailer for Fast & Furious 9 delivered the surprise twist, although we are waiting to find out just how he's back.
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Returning director Justin Lin has teased that Han's return is "all connected" and that "everything happens for a reason in the Fast Universe", which doesn't really reveal much at all about Han's surprise return.
So, how is Han coming back from the supposed dead in Fast & Furious 9? We've taken a look at the main possibilities.
He never died!
Let's face it, this is the most plausible explanation. Instead of getting blown up in his car, Han somehow managed to get out of the car in time.
Perhaps concerned for his own safety or just fancying a break from it all after the death of Gisele (Gal Gadot), Han then decided to go into hiding in Tokyo and let all of his crew think that he was dead.
And sure, it'd be a stretch, but not that unbelievable given that the series has already brought someone back from the dead after a seemingly fatal car explosion.
In both the Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious 6 version of Han's death, we saw him in the car after it crashed yet, crucially, never when it actually blew up. So Han could have scarpered while Deckard was too busy making his threatening phone call to Dom.
Related: How to watch Fast & Furious series in order
A quote from Sung Kang earlier this year backs up the theory that Han just didn't die during that explosion.
When asked about reuniting with Lin and reprising the role, Kang told Los Angeles Times: "We know who and what Han is. And we're older now. This Han is older. The things that we've learned as men in our personal lives, I hope it can transcend on-screen."
If Han is now "older", then it has to be the Han we know and love, right? Especially as he's still snacking away in the brief scene shown in the trailer.
One sticking point with Han just not dying is that we saw Dom go to Tokyo to bring Han home and have a funeral in Fast & Furious 7. But perhaps he's in on the whole thing and the funeral was just a ruse to draw Deckard out into the open.
He's a twin!
It wouldn't be the first time that a long-running series (usually on TV) has played the backup twin card to bring back a popular actor.
And in the world of Fast & Furious, would anyone really even bat an eyelid if it's revealed that Sung Kang isn't playing Han, but his never-before-mentioned twin? He could be the one to genuinely get #JusticeForHan.
Kang has actually previously commented on the possibility that he could return as a twin, and he didn't seem too keen about it.
"Maybe, but I will not be in that movie. [laughs] They're going to have to find someone else... They could cast another guy and put on a wig," he told Coming Soon in 2013 after the release of Fast & Furious 6.
That same interview also saw Kang say that it "should be the end of Han" though, so he might have had a change of heart on the twin thing in the years since.
And you might say the twin thing is too ridiculous, even for Fast & Furious, but Kang did tease to Los Angeles Times that Han's return ties into the main theme of the entire series... "family".
He's cyber-genetically enhanced!
For this next theory, we're heading over to Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw for inspiration.
In that movie, Brixton (Idris Elba) is a cyber-genetically enhanced terrorist who has literally been brought back from the dead by nefarious organisation Eteon. Who's to say they wouldn't do the same for Han?
We've speculated before that Eteon could prove to be the main Big Bad for either Fast & Furious 9 or its planned tenth movie, so Han being connected to the organisation would make sense.
Whether the main series wants to have such a crossover with the spin-off series remains to be seen, especially as it's unclear if Dwayne Johnson will return to the main franchise as Hobbs.
If Han has been brought back from the dead by Eteon, he could even be a surprise villain in Fast & Furious 9, ready to seek vengeance on Dom for not getting revenge on Deckard for Han's death.
Some fans have even suspected that Han might be the mysterious leader of Eteon with a connection to Hobbs, but that feels like a stretch – even for Fast & Furious, where cars regularly fly.
He's a clone!
OK, so we don't have any hard evidence for this theory, but in a world where terrorists can get cyber upgrades, cloning must be a thing, right?
So perhaps the Han we meet in Fast & Furious 9 is a clone of the original version just... because. We have no idea why anyone would have his DNA or would choose to bring him back, but there we go.
Unlikely, sure, but we felt it needed to be said.
Fast & Furious 9 is set for release on April 2, 2021.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
