Fast & Furious winding up, Forza Horizon 5 previewed

The Fast & Furious film franchise will go for one last ride on its 11th trip according to one of its iconic stars.

Vin Diesel, who has played Dominic Toretto in every F&F movie since The Fast and the Furious was released in 2001, told the Associated Press the end of the road is coming up fast for the franchise which has just released its ninth movie, F9.

With two more films planned for potential release in 2023 and 2024, Diesel said "every story deserves its ending," with the main saga wrapping up with an 11th film.

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The Fast And The Furious kicked off what is now a nine-film franchise which has run for 20 years

The franchise nearly came to a premature end with 2015's Fast & Furious 7 when lead actor Paul Walker was killed in a car crash on November 30, 2013.

Through the use of visual effects and Walker's brothers standing in, his character Brian O'Conner was able to be retired and Diesel now admits the franchise deserves a conclusion.

“I know people are going to feel like it doesn’t have to end, but I think all good things should,” said Diesel.

“There are reasons for a finale. I think this franchise has deserved it.”

F&F has grossed over US$5 billion worldwide since it first hit the screens in 2001, arguably being a catalyst for modified car culture to explode in the early-mid 2000s, also influencing video games like Need for Speed, Midnight Club and Juiced.

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Forza Horizon 5 will be set south of the border, heading to Mexico for the first time

Speaking of automotive video games, the fifth instalment in the Forza Horizon series has been announced, this time taking place in the Mexican desert.

The open-world game series was spawned in 2012 off the back of the first four Forza Motorsport titles, offering a more arcade-style experience to differentiate from the purely racing based offering.

Initially released on a two-year cycle, we've had to wait three years since the release of Horizon 4, which was based in the UK, to be released, though the creators of Horizon 5 claim it has a reworked story mode with bigger challenges than in previous games.

Australians were able to rip skids up and down the Gold Coast Esplanade and tear through the outback in Horizon 3, the 2016 title basing itself Down Under and selling just under four million copies, making it the most popular Forza game across both genres.

As a Microsoft-developed game, Horizon 5 will only be available on PC and Xbox consoles when it is released on November 9, 2021.