Lately, the Fast & Furious sequels have been effectively indistinguishable from superhero movies, so it makes sense that Dominic Toretto and his gang (sorry, his family) would be going up against appropriately outrageous villains instead of boring car thieves or whatever. Jason Statham’s antagonist in Furious 7 epitomized this, with him playing the guy as an unrepentant murder machine who loves crashing his car into people, can somehow hold his own against Dwayne Johnson, and once viciously attacked an entire hospital to somehow ensure that the doctors would take proper care of his comatose brother. That gives Fast 8 villain Charlize Theron a lot to live up to, but it sounds like she might be introducing a whole new level of supervillainy to the series.
That’s according to Fast 8 composer Brian Tyler, at least, who told Entertainment Weekly that Theron’s character—known as Cipher—is a lot like Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter from Silence Of The Lambs. He says she has “a siren kind of thing,” where “there’s no question the havoc and villainy she brings,” but you’re still somehow attracted to her. Tyler says “you can kind of see yourself in this villain,” which “makes it more disturbing.” There’s no word on why our heroes will be crossing paths with someone as terrifying as Theron, but we do know that Fast 8 will involve Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs getting a chain wallet and growing a weird beard.
Fast 8 will be in theaters in April of 2017.