'Fast and Furious Spy Racers': A primer into Dom Toretto's cousin Tony Toretto and his crew in LA
'Fast and Furious: Spy Racers' is Netflix's next animated outing and a spin-off of the popular 'Fast and Furious' franchise. The series will see Dominic Toretto's cousin Tony Toretto along with his friends decide to help out a secret agency called SH1FT3R in carrying out a mission. They are asked to go undercover and for now, they consider it a great way to put their racing skills to use.
The main players in the show are Tony Toretto, Layla Gray, Frostee Benson, Echo, and Cisco Renaldo. Of the five, four of the characters are close friends and they meet Layla while they go undercover.
Speaking about why the show was set in Dom's neighborhood and surrounding his family, showrunner Tim Hedrick told Animation Magazine, "We knew we wanted to tie into the Toretto family because the franchise is all about family and all about Dom Toretto, who is played by Vin Diesel."
He further added, "So we have this character Tony Toretto, who is Dom’s cousin. And then we built his crew around him and who would be the people that you’d see on the streets of Los Angeles, and L.A. seemed like the natural place to start. It gives our characters a very cool, visually identifiable home base. You can go very gritty in L.A. and you can also go super glitzy and Hollywood and it gives us multiple worlds to explore."
Speaking about his character Tony, Tyler Posey said to TV Insider, "He is the leader of the Spy Racers and he couldn't be more proud of that position. He's the best person for this job to be this leader because he's had his little race crew for a long time and he's been this inherent leader of them without really trying. It's just kind of in his blood."
Layla is also an undercover agent, who works for SH1FT3R, and she is expected to develop a relationship with Tony in the show.
Then we have Tony's friend Frostee who is a 13-year-old tech genius. He helps Tony with interesting accessories and from the looks of it in the trailer, also tech-related to Tony's car. Then, there is Echo, who is a character that we would have to check out in the show itself. All we know as of now is that Echo is a talented artist. Cisco is called the sweetheart of the crew, and will most probably be the character that audiences would find hilarious.
Diesel's daughter Similce Diesel plays the role of Frostee's sister in the show. The one who approaches Tony and his friends in the first place to become undercover agents is Ms. Knowhere, SH1FT3R's liaison. This character is played by Renée Elise Goldsberry.
The show is slated to release on December 26.