Anna Sawai’s character Elle was introduced in F9, and Fast & Furious 11 could bring her back and cash in on Sawai’s rising popularity after Shogun.

Anna Sawai as Mariko in Shogun & Elle in Fast 9

With Fast & Furious 11 just around the corner, the upcoming film could still take advantage of Anna Sawai’s rising popularity. Following the success of Fast X in 2023, a followup was quickly put into production to pay off that film’s cliffhanger ending. Since it’s been rumored that this next installment could be the last for the Fast & Furious series, it would be a perfect opportunity to bring in multiple characters from the franchise’s past.

Fast & Furious already has a habit of bringing back fan-favorite characters. Fast Five, which originally could’ve ended up as the final entry in the series, went all out and brought together the casts of disparate installments, such as Tej, Roman, and Han. The series even complicated its own timeline for a while in order to bring back Han, who had been killed off in the third film The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift but still had a prominent role in the fourth, fifth, and sixth films. Since then, the recurring cast of the series has only grown larger.

Fast & Furious 11 Should Bring Back Anna Sawai’s Elle

A custom image of Eva Mendes as Monica and Anna Sawai as Elle from the Fast and Furious franchise.Anna Sawai appeared in F9: The Fast Saga as an adopted daughter of the character of Han. It’s revealed that Han actually faked his own death in order to go into hiding to protect Elle as a young girl as her DNA is the MacGuffin driving the plot. The villains are seeking a weapons system known as Project Aries, and only Elle’s DNA can activate it, so Dom and his crew set out to rescue her. In the end she’s shown joining up with the rest of the crew and becoming an official part of the Toretto extended family.

Elle didn’t make an appearance in Fast X. This was likely due to the relatively large cast of characters, both new and returning, with only a limited amount of space to focus on them. Along with that, despite her connection to Han she was only really involved in F9 as a plot device and thus would not have had much to do during Fast X. This is a missed opportunity because in the wake of F9 Anna Sawai has established herself as an exciting up and coming talent.

Shogun Proves Why Anna Sawai Should Have A Bigger Role In The Fast & Furious Franchise

Anna Sawai as Mariko gazing forward resolutely yet enigmatically in a scene from Shogun

FX’s new miniseries Shogun has proven to be a bona fide hit, both critically and commercially. One of the standout aspects has been Anna Sawai’s performance as translator Mariko. She’s played a prominent role in the story, and will no doubt continue to grow in popularity as an actor thanks to it. She’s also one of the lead roles in Monarch, which has been successful enough to be renewed for a second season.

Fast & Furious has already established her character prior to these breakout roles, and the franchise is now presented with an excellent opportunity. If they bring back Elle for the next installment, it will only benefit from Anna Sawai’s rising star, and her own career would only be boosted by the move as well. If it’s true that Fast & Furious 11 will be the final entry in this long-running franchise, then it only makes sense for the filmmakers to pull out all the stops and bring back all the characters they’re able to.