For every mission the Fast & Furious family takes on, there’s a big bad behind it, and over the years we’ve seen some truly iconic as well as fairly forgettable villains try to take down Dominic Toretto and his family. From Charlize Theron to Jason Statham to John Cena we’ve seen some epic actors join the franchise, and now with Jason Momoa in Fast X as the latest antagonist, we figured it’d be the perfect time to rank all the villains that have tried to bring down the family. And let me just tell you upfront, while we may rank the Fast & Furious movies one way, when it comes to the bad guys, it’s a totally different story, so let’s get into it.
10. DK Takashi -- Tokyo Drift
Overall, I really don’t like Tokyo Drift. While Han is great, this movie seriously messed up the Fast and Furious timeline, and it had not only a forgettable but a terrible villain. DK Takashi was an adult who got into a battle with a teen, or a kid if you will, over a girl, and that really rubbed me the wrong way. While Sean was low-key asking for the fight, this bad guy shouldn’t have gotten into a tiff with a teen, I draw the line at trying to destroy minors when you’re an adult, it’s not a good look.
9. Johnny Tran -- The Fast And The Furious
While Johnny Tran is the reason both Dom and Brian were in trouble, and was the reason they met, this big bad is really not that memorable. When I think of The Fast and The Furious I think of the conflict between Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s characters, not how they ultimately stopped Johnny Tran. So, while the first movie in this franchise genuinely rocks, the villain is not the best.
8. Arturo Braga -- Fast & Furious
Arturo Braga is yet another forgettable gang leader/mob boss from the early years of the Fast saga. While I did like the surprise reveal of Braga, and we didn’t really know who he was for a lot of the movie, it could have been better. For example, I wrote in my thoughts about Fast & Furious that it would have been extra epic if Gal Gadot ended up being Braga, but no, it was what we all expected, it was just some guy.
7. Hernan Reyes -- Fast Five
You don’t remember the villain of Fast Five, you remember the heist. While this fifth movie is considered one of the best in the franchise, and rightfully so, Hernan Reyes is by no means the best villain. While he’s pretty terrible, and a scary mob boss, he’s too similar to Fast’s former bad guys. However, the fact that the epic heist happens because of him helps his case, because that safe chase scene is still one of the best set pieces across the franchise.
6. Cipher -- The Fate Of The Furious
Why does Chipher feel the need to nuke the world? And why is Dom Toretto so heavily involved in her plan to do so? I have absolutely no idea, which is why she’s right in the middle of this list. While I love that the villain of Fate of the Furious was played by Charlize Theron, and we finally got a woman as the big bad, her character just felt like a vehicle for technical speak, and when it came to her motivations they were incredibly unclear.
I adore Charlize Theron, and she’s such an action icon, so having her in the franchise is a fantastic choice, however, her character is by no means the best villain.
5. Carter Verone -- 2 Fast 2 Furious
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I think 2 Fast 2 Furious is camp, and I love it for that. Part of the reason for the extra-ness of this movie stems from Cole Hauser’s villain Carter Verone, who is a rich drug lord in Miami who Brian and Roman are trying to stop. He’s over the top, and incredibly violent (I mean do you remember that rat scene?) which makes him a hard villain to forget, and a fun opponent for the crew.
Verone is also easily the best villain of the early Fast movies before the franchise started hiring A-Listers to play the big bads. It also helps that I’m a fan of Yellowstone, and who wouldn’t want to see Rip Wheeler as a villain in the Fast franchise?
4. Jakob Toretto -- F9: The Fast Saga
John Cena joining the Fast family felt inevitable, and when it came time for him to join the franchise he did it in such a fun and relatively meaningful way as Dom’s half-brother Jakob Toretto. One of the reasons I thought F9 really worked was because the flashbacks of Dom and Jakob provided some much-needed depth to the story. Seeing how the two brothers grew apart, and how hurt Cena’s character was helped me understand why he wanted to take down the family, and it made me even happier when he decided to join it.
3. Owen Shaw -- Fast & Furious 6
I have so many thoughts about Fast & Furious 6 and why it’s my favorite of the franchise and a few of them stem from the fact that Luke Evans' Owen Shaw is a maniacal, extreme, and overall fun villain. While we get a taste of the world-saving action in Fast 5, the sixth movie is the first time the crew really shifts into superhero mode as they try to stop Deckard Shaw's little brother from destroying the world.
In short, he’s got a big goal, some odd motivations, a big brother played by Jason Statham and a tank, making him one of the better villains in the saga.
2. Dante Reyes -- Fast X
Jason Momoa’s candy-colored, scrunchy-wearing, incredibly enthusiastic villain Dante Reyes ruled. As multiple Fast X reviews have highlighted, including our own, Momoa is the star of this movie. To me adding the actor to the Fast X cast helped the franchise grow in the bad guy department, and overall Dante felt like a breath of fresh air for this series. On top of Fast X’s big bad rocking iconic pastel outfits, literally plié-ing across the screen, and bringing a fun silly goofy mood to the movie, he also has clear motivations. Also, he will actually do anything, no matter how terrible, to accomplish his goal.
Overall, Dante is both a fun and terrifying villain, making him an instant classic among the Fast franchise’s bad guys.
1. Deckard Shaw -- Furious 7
Easily the best villain and one of the best characters in this franchise is Deckard Shaw. Jason Statham appeared as Owen Shaw’s older brother and was responsible for Han’s death in the post-credit scene of Fast & Furious 6, and we’ve never looked back. He played the main villain in Furious 7, proving to be a great match for the crew. However, more importantly, he eventually became such a beloved character he became part of the family (sort of).
After Statham’s explosive performance as the big bad in movie No. 7, he got to stay on board, and we got to meet his mother and sister through other movies. So, I think it’s safe to say that this incredibly suave and brutally lethal character is one the best villains the franchise has to offer.
Over the last two decades, we’ve seen so many villains come in and out of the Fast & Furious franchise, and while some of them ruled, there is a handful that are easily forgotten (namely anyone who played a big bad in one of the movies before Fast & Furious 6). From campy, over-the-top men with vendettas to generic drug lords to the occasional tech master it feels like we’ve seen it all with this franchise as Dom and his family keep stopping the big bads with their cars, faith and family.
