Fast and Furious' 10th and final (?) chapter could have two parts, according to Vin Diesel

Harry Potter. The Hunger Games. Great genre franchises find it easiest to split their finales into two parts. Even Star Wars considered it for the end of the Skywalker saga. Now The Fast and the Furious franchise is the latest in this long line to consider the bifurcating move.

The mainline Fast franchise recently saw a trailer drop for director Justin Lin’s return to the series with the already twisty Fast & Furious 9. However, it’s been the plan since 2015 for the series to conclude its epic, high-octane tale of secret agents, super-cars, and a blatant disregard for physics after 10 entries (spinoff included). Now Vin Diesel, the man who would know beyond anyone else, has spoken briefly about the plan for the end of the madness. In an interview with Total Film, the actor (who plays Dom Toretto in the series, a character who recently revealed that he has a brother in John Cena’s newly introduced F9 character) explained that a 10-part main series might not necessarily translate to 10 movies.

Discussing the future of the franchise — spinoffs and all — Diesel said, “should Fast 10 parts one and two be the conclusion, it would be nice for this world to continue for generations to come.” Parts One and Two? So Fast 9.5 and Fast 10? This series is no stranger to oddball naming conventions, of course. Will there be an epic cliffhanger featuring a car flying in midair? Or perhaps the first half of the finale cuts to credits as soon as Dom and crew take off in a SpaceX rocket headed for the moon for an epic lunar buggy chase?

Whatever the main plan is for the franchise, its star understands that the spinoff universe, kickstarted by last year’s Hobbs & Shaw, will likely continue to grow. “The universe is so robust and so rich with talent and rich with story that, on one level, it’s totally feasible to have spinoffs, and I think that’s something that is inevitable,” Diesel said. “Universal deserves it because of how much they’ve invested in this little saga, and it’d be good to give back to Universal.” So Hobbs & Shaw will likely continue and/or have friends peeling off the main franchise — and Dom does have that son to pick up the mantle, after all.

Cena’s character Jakob may also be a candidate for a spin-off. Diesel teased that F9 could show off a flashback explaining how the brothers became estranged — and it all has to do with the death of the Toretto patriarch. “It certainly shaped Dom,” the actor said, “and certainly how, in some ways, it’s the origin story of Dom.” Did Jakob kill their father? The Fast and the Furious shows the Toretto dad dying in a stock car race after being run off the track ... but is there more to the story?

Fans can find out when Fast & Furious 9 kicks it into overdrive on May 22.