The the Fast & Furious timeline has become notoriously confusing, incorporating retcons, flashbacks, and characters seemingly coming back from the dead. One of these Fast & Furious characters that returned from the dead is Han Lue, whose original popularity triggered a re-ordering of the timeline.

Han, played by Sung-Ho Kang, first appeared in the third Fast & Furious installment, Tokyo Drift, and quickly became a fan favorite. The snack-loving retired drift racer was witty, likable, and effortlessly cool, and Han has often been considered the Fast & Furious saga's best character. While he originally died in a car crash in the movie, Tokyo Drift was retconned into a Fast & Furious sequel so that Han could return as part of the team in the fourth, fifth, and sixth Fast & Furious movies released, with Tokyo Drift now set after Fast 6 in the timeline.

Han Returning In Fast Five Is What Made The Timeline So Confusing

Fast Five Continues A Fast & Furious Character Tradition That Started With Han

Han appeared at the beginning of Fast & Furious 4, with the rest of Vin Diesel's character, Dom's family, and he mentioned wanting to go to Tokyo. This appearance might have worked as one of the Fast & Furious saga's many Easter eggs, as Justin Lin directed both Fast & Furious 4 and Tokyo Drift. Still, the timeline became confusing when Han returned to the Fast & Furious saga as a main character in Fast Five. To some, it wasn't clear that Fast Five was set before Tokyo Drift, so Han appeared to have returned from the dead, thus making his status quite perplexing.

To find out more about Han, Justin Lin's 2003 movie Better Luck Tomorrow was later recognized as Han's origin story.

A credits scene in Fast Five established that another presumed dead character was also alive: Dom's wife, Letty, thought to have died in Fast & Furious 4. This Fast & Furious tradition of bringing dead characters back continues throughout the franchise. Even Han's girlfriend, Gisele, played by Gal Gadot, was seemingly killed when she sacrificed herself for Han in Fast 6, but was confirmed to have survived in Fast X. This habit of retconning character deaths would later complicate the franchise even more, making it difficult to keep track of who is alive.

Fast & Furious' Timeline Became Even More Complicated Between Fast 6 & Furious 7

Welcoming Deckard Shaw Into The Family Was Controversial Among Fast & Furious Fans

Elena's pregnancy appears to be another Fast & Furious plot hole. She and Dom dated in Fast Five, but, though Elena appeared throughout Fast 6 and Furious 7, she is revealed in The Fate of the Furious to have had Dom's child, with audiences raising the question of when she became pregnant. Family is a central value in the Fast & Furious franchise, even for the villains, including Deckard Shaw, played by Jason Statham, whose introduction in the Fast 6 credits scene reveals he is Han's killer, and Han's death is confirmed for the third time at the beginning of Furious 7.

Killing Han is Deckard's retaliation for the presumed murder of his brother, Fast 6's antagonist Owen Shaw. Deckard is the primary antagonist throughout Furious 7, but when Dom welcomes Deckard into the family in The Fate of the Furious, without even an apology for Han's death, this storyline was received terribly, and Fast & Furious audiences called for "justice for Han". Revealing Han was alive, with no real explanation for how he survived the Tokyo Drift crash, besides telling government agent Mr Nobody "pretty nifty magic trick" did nothing to resolve the confusion or the timeline.

Han Being Alive In F9 Makes Fast & Furious' Timeline Struggles Hilarious In Hindsight

If Han Had Stayed Dead At The End Of Tokyo Drift, Most Of The Confusion Could Have Been Avoided

Deckard's revenge mission against Dom's family for the death of his brother, who turned out to be alive, by killing Han, who also turned out to be alive, means that, in hindsight, there were no dramatic stakes for Dom's family or Deckard in Furious 7. The anger and retaliations had no foundation, as none of the intended targets died, making the storyline seem more like a comedy, and even lessening the impact of the Fast & Furious franchise. Fast & Furious movies have emotional moments, but when few characters remain dead, this lowers the tension for all of them.

The cast and crew kept Han's return in F9 secret from the audience, by keeping actor Sung-Ho Kang out of group pictures.

The Fast & Furious franchise tied itself in knots to work around Han's return in Fast Five, which then confused the timelines of the other Fast & Furious movies, affecting other characters' storylines. Gisele will return in Fast 11, after being killed to avoid an explanation for why she wasn't in Tokyo Drift. Setting Fast Five up as a prequel sent the Fast & Furious timeline into a confusing tailspin, in which characters could be brought back from the dead any time, and all of this confusion could have been avoided if Han had instead starred in Tokyo Drift spin-off prequels.