Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, rest of Fast & Furious family strap in for 20th anniversary posters

Fast at 20

Fast & Furious is officially 20, with Tuesday marking the anniversary of the 2001 release of The Fast and the Furious (read EW's oral history of the film). The past two decades of the franchise have included nine films, one spin-off, and more than $6 billion at the box office. "I don't reflect enough," Vin Diesel told EW in its Fast digital cover story. "For some reason, I believe in order to pull this off I need to apply all my energy into pushing [Fast] up the hill. And maybe that's not the best route, and I should take a minute and reflect on how far we've come."

Let's now take a quarter mile to click through — and reflect on — these exclusive anniversary posters.

Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner

Paul Walker was Fast's original hero, starring in The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7, before the late actor passed away during the filming of the seventh installment. "He had this ability to see," said Diesel on EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga. "Every time we'd come out of a premiere, it would just be me and him. Everybody would always give us our moment, and he'd always say, 'Vin, the best one's still in the can.' I'd be like, 'You didn't hear them, Paul?! They're going crazy! What do you mean the best one's still in the can?!'"

Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto

Twenty years in, original star Jordana Brewster is still learning from Mia. "I think in real life I'm sometimes so shy or a little bit soft-spoken, and when I watch I'm like, 'Mia is such a badass,'" she recently said on EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga. "To see Mia and be like, 'Oh, she's such a good example for women out there,' and she's even a good example for me to just own it. I love that about her."

Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz

It's been a long road for Michelle Rodriguez, from refusing to play Letty as originally written in The Fast and the Furious to seemingly being killed off in Fast & Furious to returning and continuing the fight for franchise equality. "We've grown so much in the last 18 years, and it's all of us — we're in it together," she said on EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga. "It's cool that they were open enough to change and to evolve with the times."

Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto

Diesel is just as surprised as anyone about Fast's longevity, considering he walked away after The Fast and the Furious, thinking a sequel would hurt the legacy of the original. But he returned as Dom in the final scene of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and has never looked back. "To be the vessel of a character to this degree for decades, what you end up finding is that you're pulling from your real life — it becomes that personal," he recently told EW. "It's like when Paul used to say how much he loved being called Brian. That means for so long he's played this character, he's adopted part of the character and the character's adopted part of him. And maybe in this Fast universe, as complicated as it is, life is a little simpler."

Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce

When Diesel opted not to return for 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, Tyrese Gibson, a singer-turned-actor just coming off his film debut, joined Walker. "I got blessed by default," admitted Gibson on EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga. "I said, 'Man, I'll do this s--- for per diem!'" He's since established himself as the franchise's comedic relief, having starred in six Fast films.

Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Tej Parker

Like Gibson, Ludacris benefited from someone passing on a role in 2 Fast, in his case fellow rapper Ja Rule. This led to a last-minute audition for Ludacris, who took on his first major acting role in the Fast sequel. He has now played Tej, the former owner of a Miami garage and current tech genius, in six films. "I'm the luckiest human being alive," he declared on EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga. "The two top things that everyone in the world wants to do, be a movie star and a rock star, and I'm actually living it out. It's surreal for me to even say that."

Sung Kang as Han

"It's just Han," director Justin Lin recently told EW, clarifying the name of the beloved character that Sung Kang first originated in the duo's low-budget drama Better Luck Tomorrow. Since then, the actor has appeared in five Fast films, bringing Han back from the dead two different times, most recently thanks to the "justice for Han" campaign. "There's something deeper behind 'justice for Han' than just bringing a character back," Kang told EW. "That's a gimmick. What I eventually connected with was that this campaign was started because there was some feeling that just didn't sit right in your stomach, right? This guy, Han, happens to be your boy, your friend, your buddy, your older brother, part of the family. And even within Hollywood make-believe, when you discard a character and that history is eliminated, there's something wrong with that."

Lucas Black as Sean Boswell

Fast took an unexpected turn with 2006's Tokyo Drift, introducing an entirely new cast (with the exception of Diesel's cameo). Front and center was Lucas Black as Sean Boswell, a troubled teen and talented driver who is sent to live with his father in Tokyo. "Just being a part of Fast & Furious is incredible and a huge success for me," said Black on EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga. "It was a blessing to see that it was one of those films that stood out from the franchise. That's what's so unique about Tokyo Drift: It kind of has its own following. I know the saga has changed throughout the years, and that's been a good thing. But Tokyo Drift stands out different, and I'm proud of that."

Gal Gadot as Gisele Yashar

Before she was Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot was Gisele. First introduced in 2009's Fast & Furious, Gisele appeared in the next three films, finding a home with Han and the team, until she sacrificed herself for him in Fast 6. "There was just something about her," Lin says of Gadot's audition. "Gal just nailed it. And I just remember sitting there going, 'God, I'm so happy the process resulted in us meeting her.' She was just fearless."

Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs

From the minute Dwayne Johnson swaggered into Fast Five, the Fast world has never been the same. His memorable showdown with Diesel led to future team-ups in Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, and The Fate of the Furious, before he and Jason Statham headlined the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. "When you have a franchise that is as successful as the Fast & Furious franchise, the goal, certainly my goal, was always to try and create a scenario where we have as much longevity as we possibly can have," Johnson told EW in 2018. "And in that spirit, you have to evolve and you have to spin off and you have to create new characters and new stories, especially when you're coming off Fast 8, where you have an eight at the end of your title."

Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw

Jason Statham arrived with a bang, popping up in the Fast & Furious 6 mid-credits scene, in which he was revealed as Han's killer. He returned as Furious 7's main antagonist, Deckard Shaw, who eventually became part of the crew in The Fate of the Furious and the co-hero of Hobbs & Shaw. But with calls for "justice for Han" and Kang now returning, what does Statham have to say for himself? "They better bring me back because I need to put out that fire," Statham recently told EW. "If he's got any score to settle, it's with me."

Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey

Nathalie Emmanuel's world-class hacker Ramsey has gone from being saved by the family in Furious 7 to becoming an integral part of it. "I often feel so attracted to women who are so undeniably talented, and Ramsey is absolutely that," said Emmanuel on EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga. "On a personal level, because of the impact that Fast & Furious has had for me as a woman of mixed Black heritage, and seeing the diversity of those movies and how they grow, being a part of that huge impact that those movies have across the entire world was just so exciting — the idea that someone might one day see me and feel represented the way that I did when I was a kid."

John Cena as Jakob Toretto

Meet the newest member of the family. John Cena is making his Fast debut as Jakob Toretto, the long-lost brother of Dom and Mia, who finds himself facing off against his big bro. Speaking to EW for its recent digital cover story, Cena was at a loss for words when asked about filming the first showdown between Dom and Jakob. "Think of the thing you're most passionate about — the show or the form of entertainment, music, whatever. And then you come face-to-face with the pinnacle of that [thing] you are passionate about, and you are given a relic that defines that pinnacle, and you are treated as equals," the wrestler and actor says of donning the signature Toretto necklace opposite Diesel. "I always compare everything to WWE, and that would be like [coming] face-to-face with the Rock. There's no denying that Dom Toretto is an iconic character, and that was really special. That's a main event at WrestleMania."