There's a moment in 'Hobbs and Shaw' you may overlook that hints the movie may take place after 'Fas

Publish date: 2024-08-02

2019-08-02T21:50:10Z

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Hobbs and Shaw."
The "Fast & Furious" spin-off introduces us to Deckard Shaw's sister, but fails to bring back his brother, Owen, who is a big part of the franchise.
Owen was alive at the end of "The Fate of the Furious." It's unclear where he is now or how much time has passed between "F8" and "Hobbs and Shaw."
A line in the movie hints he may be dead, but that's probably not the case. An easy-to-miss moment in the film quickly glosses over his name.
There's another minor moment that hints "Hobbs and Shaw" takes place in 2022, potentially a few years ahead of "Fast and the Furious 9." That movie's due in theaters 2020.
It also gives more room to explore the Shaw family story, something which seems to be on "Hobbs and Shaw" screenwriter Chris Morgan's mind.
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"Hobbs and Shaw" is in theaters and it's easy to get caught up in The Rock and Jason Statham's characters' bickering along with the big action pieces in the film.

But if you're a big fan of the "Fast and Furious" franchise, there's one frustrating question that's never addressed in a movie that's big on family: Where is Deckard Shaw's brother Owen?

For a movie that shows Deckard's mother Queenie (Helen Mirren) and his sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), it's surprising that Owen (Luke Evans) doesn't show up. More surprising is that he's rarely brought up. Other than one very brief moment that an eagle-eyed viewer pointed out to us at the prison, Owen isn't discussed.

It's not even clear by the movie's end whether or not the third Shaw sibling is alive or dead. That makes you wonder when this movie is even taking place.

What's going on?

Owen Shaw's absence in the film along with Queenie's current story line show there's an obvious gap in the current "Fast and Furious" timeline. If you're watching closely, there are a few hints in the film that make us believe "Hobbs and Shaw" takes place in 2022.

Let's break down what we know.

The last time we saw Owen Shaw he was alive and well

Owen Shaw is oddly MIA in "Hobbs and Shaw." Is he OK? Universal Pictures

In "The Fate of the Furious," Evans joined the Fast fam late in the game. He and his brother made their way onto Cipher's (Charlize Theron) plane to rescue Dom's baby.

By the movie's end, we're not sure where Owen is, but he's presumed to be alive. The last time we see him, he's holding the pilot of Cipher's plane at gunpoint and tells him to land.

The last time we saw Queenie Shaw, she wasn't in prison

When did Helen Mirren's Queenie wind up in jail? Universal Studios

The other big subplot to take note of is that Shaw's mother is in prison. We're never told how or why she ended up in jail. We just know she has a few more years in the slammer. There's definitely a chunk of time that is left unexplained.

Does her incarceration have something to do with why Owen is out of the picture? Maybe. It may answer why the rest of the family refuses to bring him up in conversation. A big part of "Hobbs and Shaw" deals with Hobbs being estranged from his family for 25 years because Hobbs put his father in jail. Did Owen do something similar with his mother to make himself estranged from the Shaw family?

A line in 'Hobbs and Shaw' that may be about Owen

Brixton and Deckard Shaw have a past. Universal Studios

Other than a quick mention by Queenie, there's one curious line Deckard Shaw delivers to Brixton Lorr (Idris Elba).

Late in the film, Deckard yells out at Brixton that he made him kill his own brother.

Is he talking about Owen?

Hattie and Deckard are having a fine time without their brother in "Hobbs and Shaw." Universal Pictures

Not necessarily. This is what I thought immediately, but the line can be read two different ways.

The first scenario is that something happened between "Fate of the Furious" and "Hobbs and Shaw," which resulted in Owen's untimely death. Brixton did something to force Deckard to kill Owen.

After sitting with it for a bit, I'm not buying this theory. First, it's tough to see a scenario where Deckard would kill his own brother. But the biggest hint is that Deckard didn't know Brixton was alive for the past eight years. He was genuinely surprised to learn Brixton was trying to get ahold of a virus because, as he tells Hobbs, he shot and killed Brixton eight years ago.

If that's the case, Brixton couldn't be responsible for Deckard "killing his own brother" who hasn't been seen since the gap between "The Fate of the Furious" and "Hobbs and Shaw."

The more likely scenario is that Deckard is just talking about Brixton. At this point, the Brixton we see on screen is more machine than man. It seems like Deckard and Brixton were really close at one time — perhaps even so close that they were like brothers to each other. That's why it makes it so difficult for him to fight Brixton at the film's end.

Ultimately, that makes more sense in the "Fast and Furious" timeline of events.

So when does 'Hobbs and Shaw' take place? Probably 2022.

There are two big hints about the timing of "Hobbs and Shaw." The first is that Deckard Shaw says he killed his friend Brixton eight years ago. Simple math would tell us that means 2011.

Except that's not the case.

It's made very clear in the film that Brixton was killed in 2014. You can clearly see a still citing Brixton's date of death in one of the "Hobbs and Shaw" trailers.

A still from one of the "Hobbs and Shaw" trailers very clearly says Brixton was killed in 2014. Universal Pictures

When you do the math, that means "Hobbs and Shaw" would take place in 2022.

If you want to further complicate the "Fast" franchise timeline even more, Brixton's original death in 2014 would have taken place before the events of 2015's "Furious 7." (As far as I know, "Furious 7" takes place in that same year.) That opens up the possibility of future movies taking us back to moments between the events of 2013's "Fast 6" and "Furious 7." The opportunity could be there to unite Brixton, Owen, and Deckard all on screen together at some point.

The other reason we're convinced 'Hobbs and Shaw' takes place after 'Fast 9': A filming delay.

The two are in some tech-fueled future. Daniel Smith/Universal

In 2016, Vin Diesel announced that the untitled ninth "Fast and the Furious" movie was set to debut in theaters this year. Late 2017, the movie was pushed back a year to April 2020.

If "Fast 9" was set to come to theaters before "Hobbs and Shaw," it's likely the film would have taken place chronologically before the spin-off.

Are we going to learn what happened to Queenie and Owen Shaw in the next "Fast and Furious" movie? It sounds like a real possibility. At the least, we're expecting to see more of the Shaw family on screen.

Not everyone has forgiven Deckard Shaw for killing one of the "Fast and Furious" franchise favorites, Han, at the end of "Fast and Furious 6." A lot of people have been calling for #JusticeforHan on social media.

Han dated Gisele (Gal Gadot) in the "Fast" franchise. Now, they're both gone. Universal

"Hobbs & Shaw" screenwriter Chris Morgan told Entertainment Weekly that they've been discussing justice for the character for a long time, and it'll come.

"There's a line in 'Hobbs & Shaw' that is right before the battle in Samoa where Shaw says to his sister, 'There's things I've done that I have to make amends for,'" said Morgan.

"That line was specifically written and put in there just to let everyone know that he is talking about Han — it is on his mind. It tortures him, and he's going to get to it," he added.

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