Playing Fast & Furious Crossroads, With Family Fast & Furious (also known as The Fast and the Furious) is a media franchise centered on a series of action films that are largely concerned with illegal street racing, heists, spies and family. The franchise also includes short films, a television series, live shows, video games, and theme park attractions. It is distributed by Universal Pictures. Universal expanded the series to include the spin-off film Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), while its subsidiary DreamWorks Animation followed this with the animated streaming television series Fast & Furious Spy Racers. Soundtrack albums have been released for all the films, as well as compilation albums containing existing music heard in the films. Two short films that tie into the series have also been released. The series has been commercially successful; Universal's biggest franchise, it is the seventh highest-grossing film series, with a combined gross of over $6 billion. Critical reception for the first four films were mixed to negative until the fifth and later films, which were more mixed to positively received. Outside of the films, Fast & Furious has been the focus of other media, including attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood, live shows, commercials, many video games and toys. It is considered the vehicle that propelled lead actors Paul Walker and Vin Diesel to stardom.