Fast 9 Los Angeles premiere: Vin Diesel feels incredible to be 'back with the family'

Fast 9 landed in Los Angeles with mask-free premiere on June 18. The premiere of F9: The Fast Saga took place on the 20th anniversary of the premiere of franchise's first film, The Fast and the Furious, in the same city.

Los Angeles: Hollywood actor-producer Vin Dieselfound the in-person, mask-free premiere of F9: The Fast Saga an emotional experience. Attending the event here on June 18, Vin said, "It feels incredible to be back with the family." The event took place 20 years to the day after the world premiere in Los Angeles of the first film in the series, The Fast and the Furious, on June 18, 2001.

"It is all about family and it's something that we're all so proud of," the franchise star and producer continued. "It's like families are all lining up in the street. Families are all queuing up to see the movie. People that haven't seen their family for a year are going to celebrate their reuniting while watching Fast. And that's a great feeling."

"The whole concept of this franchise is like wrapped around family," agreed returning co-star Charlize Theron, "and the idea of sharing, you know, for what has been over a year now to actually sit in the theater and to share that kind of story and narrative, I think is really great."

Diesel has starred as Dominic Toretto since that inaugural film. The movies have become big earners at the domestic and international box office, with the past two films each making more than $1 billion.

Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Brewster, and Sung Kang also walked the F9 red carpet, and reflected on being part of the long-running series. "I never knew that it would be it would go this far," admitted Ludacris. "It's beyond my wildest imagination."

WATCH |Vin Diesel says his daughter 'started crying' when he said Fast & Furious is ending

Justin Lin is back at the helm after directing the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the franchise. "I think we were all just strangers when we first met," admitted Lin. " But to be able to really kind of work together, go through all these intense experiences together, and then a lot of us started our families, now our kids are growing up together, you know, like playing Dungeons and Dragons with Vin and his family and Vin is the Dungeon Master, you know, that to me says it all."

In F9, Toretto and his crew join together to stop a world-shattering plot by his brother, Jakob (played by John Cena), the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they have faced.

Kang teased Fast fans ready to come back to theaters can expect "the buffet of all Fast movies."

"They can expect it to be bigger and larger in scope and we go to space," added Jordana Brewster, who made her "Fast" debut in the first film. "But at the same time there's so much heart and you get to find out so much about our backstories. And that's what I love the most about this film."

Also featuring Helen Mirren, Michelle Rodriguez, Kurt Russell and franchise newcomer Cardi B, F9: The Fast Saga is released in the U.S. on 25 June 2021.