With “Furious 7” — the latest installment of the “Fast and Furious” series — set to kick off in a couple of weeks, we now know what car the film’s villain will be driving.
It’s a Jag!
Played by action star Jason Statham, the sinister Deckard Shaw opens the film behind the wheel of a white Jaguar F-Type.
Those who’ve been watching TV for past year shouldn’t be all that surprised.
Jaguar is in the midst of its “Good to be bad” marketing campaign, launched last year with a gloriously sinister Super Bowl ad.
The ad, featuring such stalwart British movie villains as Sir Ben Kingsley, Mark Strong — and Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston — explains why Brits make such great villains. Interspersed with the actors’ speeches are shots of Jag’s F-Type driving through London.
The campaign is meant to position the Jaguar as a sleek and attractive, yet naughty, alternative to the straight-and-narrow Mercedes and BMWs that dominate the luxury car segment.
And it seems to have worked, with Jaguar Land Rover notching its best sales year ever in 2014.
Like his fellow “Fast and Furious” characters, Statham’s Shaw won’t be confined to just one car. Throughout the film, Shaw will also be behind the wheel of a modified Maserati Ghibli and an Aston Martin Rapide.
And this isn’t the only badness on film that we’ll be seeing from Jag. The carmaker’s terrifyingly gorgeous C-X75 will provide a wicked set of wheels for the villain in the upcoming James Bond flick, “Spectre.”
The Jaguar F-Type sports car is the company’s highly praised follow up to the legendary E-Type of the 1970s. With power coming from an available 5.0-liter, 550-horsepower, supercharged V8, the sleek cat can rocket to 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds, with a top speed of 186 mph.