Released exactly 20 years after The Fast and the Furious (2001).
Red Digital Cinema paid for heavy product placement of their Hydrogen One smartphone. However, poor sales caused the company to discontinue it and exit the smartphone business in November 2019 after filming had completed, but months before the film was to be released. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the film to mid-2021, over a year after the phone was discontinued.
Vin Diesel posted a picture on social media wishing a happy birthday to Jordana Brewster. In the caption, he gave a hint to Brewster's return in this sequel, after her character retired in Fast & Furious 7 (2015).
Justin Lin has been a fan of the Universal Pictures logo since childhood, and he chose this older style one to coincide with the opening late 80s-set flashback.
Roman's comment that "You know ain't nobody gonna believe us, right?" was an improv, but Justin Lin loves it as an observation not just on the space adventure but on the franchise itself. None of them could have imagined the global phenomenon that would arise from the earlier, far smaller films.