WATCHGLOBALLY

Fast & Furious Movies in Order: Where Tokyo Drift Fits

The Fast & Furious series is mostly straightforward — except for one famous wrinkle: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was released third but takes place years later in the story. That single film is the whole watch-order debate. Here's how to handle it.

Release order

  1. The Fast and the Furious (2001)Street racing and undercover cops; where the family begins.
  2. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
  3. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)The timeline outlier — see below.
  4. Fast & Furious (2009)Reunites the original cast.
  5. Fast Five (2011)The heist pivot; where the series becomes what it is now.
  6. Fast & Furious 6 (2013)Its end-credits scene connects directly to Tokyo Drift.
  7. Furious 7 (2015)Paul Walker's farewell.
  8. The Fate of the Furious (2017)
  9. F9 (2021)Brings Tokyo Drift's Han and Sean fully into the main story.
  10. Fast X (2023)Part one of the finale.

The Tokyo Drift question

Chronologically, Tokyo Drift happens between Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7 — that's why a character who appears in films 4 through 6 can also be in it. The cleanest experience for a first viewing: watch 1, 2, then skip to 4, 5, and 6, watch Tokyo Drift after 6, then continue with 7 onward. You lose nothing and the timeline clicks into place exactly when the films intend it to.

And Hobbs & Shaw?

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) is a standalone spin-off set after The Fate of the Furious. Watch it anywhere after film 8, or skip it entirely — the main saga never depends on it. The series usually streams as a bundle on one service per country, with the newest film sometimes rental-only for a while; search any entry on this site to see the current lineup where you live.

← Articles · ← Back to search