Director Justin Lin says F9 is the best Fast & Furious film yet

It's hard to believe someone could make a better movie than Fast Five, but Justin Lin thinks he's pulled it off.

Appearing on the latest episode of EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga, the filmmaker looked back on his past Fast & Furious films and ahead to the upcoming F9 (out June 25). Lin's interview comes after his F9 star Chris "Ludacris" Bridges told BINGE hosts Derek Lawrence and Chanelle Berlin Johnson that he hadn't yet seen the new film but that Lin "looked me in my eye twice and said, 'Fast 9 is the best out of the entire franchise.'" So does Lin standby that bold declaration?

"In my gut and my mind, yes," he says. "Look, it's always hard to compare because I also have the experience of what happens behind cameras. I sit there and sometimes you overcome the weirdest things just to be able to ultimately finish that movie that nobody else sees. But I do think that F9 is a culmination of all our work through the years. I like to think that my next movie is always my best movie — that's what I strive for. But I also think that on so many levels with character, it was great to reconnect with everybody. Yeah, in my heart, I feel like F9 is the best film. It's part of our evolution. But that's until we do Fast 10, right?"

After directing four straight Fast movies, Lin walked away in 2013 with Fast & Furious 6, but he now returns for F9, which (again) revives Han (Sung Kang), while also introducing the family's greatest threat yet: Jakob Toretto (John Cena), the long-lost brother of Dom (Vin Diesel) and Mia (Jordana Brewster).

"Maybe it's me coming back, but having everybody just know their characters so well, and being away never felt like I was away," adds Lin. "But also to get the butterfly in the stomach. That to me is so important so that it's not like we're just doing what is expected. We might be on the cusp of fiasco, but we're doing something."

To listen, subscribe to EW's BINGE: The Fast Saga feed via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also subscribe to EW's YouTube page to catch all the video interviews, and stay tuned to EW.com for even more Fast coverage — including next Friday's chat with Jordana Brewster about the legendary Fast Five.

Related content:

• Lucas Black on appreciating the 'unique' legacy of Tokyo Drift, reuniting with Fast family for F9
• Ludacris reflects on last-minute 2 Fast 2 Furious audition, initially playing himself 'to a degree'
• Vin Diesel reveals why he wanted to do The Fast and the Furious, and then why he almost didn't