The ‘Fate Of The Furious’ Trailer Breaks Record For Number Of Times Watched

The Fate of the Furious trailer may just annoy armchair critics around the world with recent statistics. Released among a flurry of trailers and teasers, the racing franchise Vin Diesel started has proven to be the most popular one to date.

This is possibly the moment when Paul Feig decides to look to Vin Diesel for directing tips, considering that his Ghostbusters reboot trailers were among the most hated in history. The film itself wasn’t a bad one, but the casting of all women for the titular roles, including the acting from Leslie Jones, gave it a bad name early on.

The reception to Paul Feig’s attempt was so bad that everybody involved with the film says it’s unlikely that there will be a sequel. Some of the same critics as above have been claiming that Vin Diesel’s version of The Fast and the Furious should never have gotten a sequel either, although the two films have little to do with each other. Beginning with Fast and Furious, the films began focusing more on a story and ramping up the action scenes.

In this way, the franchise has become almost like the James Bond series.

Now rivaling the Harry Potter franchise for the number of sequels (not counting Fantastic Beasts), The Fate of the Furious appears to be gaining quite an audience. It’s also the first time since Tokyo Drift that Paul Walker won’t be making an appearance for obvious reasons. It might be due to the actor’s untimely death while filming the last one that the franchise has risen above just being another action series.

The previous record for the number of times a trailer was watched was Emma Watson’s Beauty and the Beast at 127.6 million in the first 24 hours. The Fate of the Furious trailer hit 139 million views in that same time period.

Bringing in acting heavyweights Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron might also have contributed to the incredible success of the first trailer. Both, like Jason Statham, have had a highly successful action background. Helen had made her action debut in the Bruce Willis action comedy RED, and Charlize Theron came into it a little earlier, but she didn’t quite hit major action movie box office success until Mad Max: Fury Road.

Now, Theron is playing an empathetic villain, pulling some interesting strings to turn Vin Diesel against his family, both literal (Michelle Rodriguez) and chosen (the rest of the remaining team).

Another surprising twist is that Jason Statham, whose villain status made the team’s job a nightmare last time, is now allegedly working with Dwayne Johnson to help take down Theron and Diesel.

This story will span the globe from New York to the arctic Barents Sea, where the trailer reveals the team will be racing a submarine.

This also marks the first time Vin Diesel has played a villain since the original Fast and the Furious, or an anti-hero like Riddick and Xander Cage. It’s very much unclear just what turned him, but that’s part of what will probably get fans in theaters when the film releases.

For the release of the Fate of the Furious trailer, says Coming Soon, Universal Pictures closed down Times Square. They used the location to host a live Facebook event with the cast before the trailer hit NBC‘s Football Night on Sunday evening.

The Fate of the Furious will be directed by F. Gary Gray of Straight Outta Compton, so we can probably expect a high caliber of acting from everybody. Will you be among those in theaters on April 14, 2017, to see the film on its release date?

[Featured Image by Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]