Charlize Theron has revealed her new look as the villain Cipher from Fast & Furious 9. Introduced in 2017's The Fate of the Furious, Cipher is a cyber-terrorist and criminal mastermind who forced Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) to do her bidding by holding his old flame Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) and their infant son hostage, before having Elena killed in front of Dom as punishment after he disobeyed one of her orders. However, even after Dom and his team eventually got the upper-hand on her, Cipher managed to evade capture and fled, leaving her inevitable showdown with Dom for another day.
It was rumored early on that Cipher could return in this year's Dwayne Johnson-led spinoff, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Some fans have even speculated the character was originally going to be revealed as The Director of the sinister organization Eteon in Hobbs & Shaw before plans changed, but there's no official evidence to suggest that was ever seriously considered. Either way, Diesel previously confirmed Theron is returning for Fast & Furious 9, and it turns out she's gotten a new haircut for the occasion.
With filming on Fast & Furious 9 already well underway, Theron announced her involvement with an Instagram post that reveals Cipher's short new hairdo in the film. You can check out the photo in the space below.
Jokes about Cipher (wisely) ditching her dreadlocks from Fate of the Furiousaside, it will be interesting to see how she figures into the plot for Fast & Furious 9. There's a lot that's unknown about the film right now, including its storyline and how it will set the stage for Fast & Furious 10 to close out the Toretto Saga, as the movie's producers (Diesel included) have long claimed is the plan. In the past, no two Fast & Furious movies have feature the same primary villain, so it's possible Cipher will play more of a supporting role in Fast & Furious 9. She could even be the puppet master pulling the strings on John Cena's new character (who's rumored to be a new musclebound threat to Dom and his extended family).
Given her history with Dom and his clan, it would make sense to keep Cipher around following Fast & Furious 9, in order to ensure the stakes in the (again, supposedly) final mainline Fast & Furious movie are all the more personal for the series' heroes. It's also been reported that Universal is considering making a spinoff film built around Cipher, which could hint at the character undergoing a redemption arc in the future (as Fast & Furious antagonists have a habit of doing). Either way, it's good to have Theron back onboard for Fast & Furious 9 and - hopefully - getting to be an even bigger thorn in Dom's side than she was the last time around.
