10 Movie Characters Who Debuted Much Earlier Than You Think

9. Han Lue (The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift) - Better Luck Tomorrow

The Character

Han Lue (Sung Kang), the drifting mentor of Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) in The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift, who despite dying mid-way through the film, went on to become a mainline member of the franchise in the next three movies thanks to timeline-shifting shenanigans.

With increasing hand-wringing from fans over his unresolved murder, it seems increasingly likely that Han might emerge out of the woodwork in an upcoming instalment. As ever, though, wait and see.

Their REAL Debut

Back in 2002, Sung Kang starred in Tokyo Drift director Justin Lin's crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow, playing a similar wheeler-dealer character named Han Hu, who is said to have inspired Lin's inclusion of Han Lue in Tokyo Drift.

A popular fan theory has persisted for years that these Hans are in fact the same person, one which both Kang and Lin support, seemingly "confirming" Better Luck Tomorrow to be a prequel to Tokyo Drift.

With a street racer outlaw like Han, it's not much of a stretch to believe that he switched out his surnames every so often. He did go by the alias "Han Seoul-Oh" (Han Solo, get it?) for a while, after all.