A new Fast & Furious spinoff is apparently in the works with Charlize Theron's Cipher in the central role. After debuting as the cyberterrorist Cipher in The Fate of the Furious in 2017, Theron reprised her role for this year's sequel F9. Perhaps happy with what Theron has brought to the series with her antagonistic role, Vin Diesel recently told Variety that he's tasked the franchise writers with developing a Fast & Furious spinoff led by Cipher.

News of Theron's Cipher getting her own movie follows prior comments from the cast that there should be a female-led spinoff. In a group interview hosted by SiriusXM, the cast was asked which one of the characters they feel should get the next spinoff. The first one to chime in was Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, who said "all of the badass, kick-ass women in [F9]" were the ones who really needed the spinoff.

"Think about all the people we could bring back, right?" added Jordana Brewster. "We could bring back Eva Mendes, who'd be incredible to work with. There's Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron Nathalie [Emmanuel], me, Anna [Sawai], Michelle [Rodriguez]. It would be really, really cool. I can't speak to the discussions, but I think it would be awesome."

Because Vin Diesel offered no additional information about the Cipher spinoff, it's unclear how many other franchise stars may be involved at this time. Given her relationship to John Cena's Jakob Toretto in F9, it would make sense for him to appear in the Cipher movie, though that would depend on when and where the movie is set. It's also unclear if the movie is intended to be a prequel for Cipher or a continuation of the F9 story.

Meanwhile, the Fast & Furious will conclude its main story with its final two installments. According to Diesel, F10 and F11 are both scheduled to start shooting back-to-back in January. We can certainly expect the core crew to return for the next movies, though it remains to be seen if Cipher will return, or if she'll go the Hobbs & Shaw route and branch off into her own narrative at this point. It's worth noting that director Justin Lin recently teased Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham appearing in F10 or F11.

"I think that's always been our approach... So many of the conversations I have is about characters that are not even in there, but are still, obviously, they are living and breathing in this universe," Lin told CinemaBlend. "On [F9], when I came back, I was thinking a lot about Hobbs and Shaw, and all of the other characters. I never think of them as being gone, for sure."

Lin directed F9 using a screenplay he'd co-written with Daniel Casey. Along with Diesel and Theron, the movie stars John Cena, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Helen Mirren, and Kurt Russell. Despite its less-than-ideal release following multiple delays, the movie has been a big hit at the box office. It's no surprise to see Universal keeping the ball rolling with spinoff movies now that the end is in sight.

F9 is currently playing in theaters. No word yet on a possible release window for Cipher's spinoff with Charlize Theron. This news comes to us from Variety.