With the trailer for the Fast Five, which left the franchise in the position of having to streamline its unfolding story.
These issues would eventually be settled with 2015's Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. Despite this, demands of "Justice For Han" would also linger as the series progressed, with Hobbs and Shaw producer and screenwriter Chris Morgan assuring that those calls would eventually be answered.
With the debut of the F9 trailer, it now seems that those calls have indeed been at least somewhat heeded. Needless to say, Han's appearance in the trailer was by far the most surprising aspect revealed about F9, and while Han's inexplicable return remains to be fully explained, it also sets up the franchise for its next logical step. Namely, giving Han his own spin-off.
The plan for the past few years has been for the mainline Fast and Furious series to conclude with its tenth installment. However, the series has already begun branching out into spin-offs and side stories with Hobbs and Shaw and the Netflix animated series Fast and Furious: Spy Racers. Furthermore, the franchise being officially retitled as The Fast Saga offers further hints of the future of the series falling to other characters. This means that the groundwork for a spin-off devoted to Han has already been set in place.
What's more, the shock that has accompanied the reveal of Han's return exemplifies his significance to the franchise, and demonstrates that audiences are fully prepared to follow where the story takes him without the usual Fast and Furious gang accompanying him. However, there's also nothing to say that Han has to go solo either, and in fact, the return of his girlfriend Gisele Yashar would be ideal for Han's spin-off. Though Gisele was ostensibly killed herself in Wonder Woman makes Gisele's hypothetical return that much more of a no-brainer.
Between now and the debut of F9, audiences will doubtlessly spend much time theorizing over the specifics of Han's return. However, with the primary series set to finish up with its tenth chapter, a Han-centric Fast and Furious spin-off makes all the sense in the world. Add Gisele back into the mix, and the franchise has the complete package to head in any new direction it wants long after Han graces cinema screens again in F9.
