Either because Universal have a lot of spare loot laying around now that they’ve canned those pricey pics Ron Howard and Guillermo del Toro planned to do, or simply because the actor himself has been advised not to headline another movie until his share price rises, Jason Statham may be joining the all-star cast of “Fast and the Furious 6″ and possibly, “Fast and the Furious 7″.

Statham, already a part of the “Expendables” franchise, would join fellow gym-membership holders Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson in one or both of the next instalments in the highly-successful series.

Reports Twitch :

Sources tell Twitch that Universal Pictures are currently looking in to the possibility of shooting Fast 6 and Fast 7 back to back in Europe throughout 2012 and, furthermore, that they are entering into preliminary conversations with Jason Statham to explore the possibility of the action star joining one or both films.

Not surprised at all to hear that Uni are considering shooting the next two films back-to-back – for one, they’re both certain to make money, so they might as well as get ‘em done, but moreso, they can retain the services of director Justin Lin who can punch out two of these puppies in the one block. Considering Lin recently had to pull out of “Terminator 5″ due to his commitment with “Fast 6″ it wouldn’t be at all surprising to learn he’s doing both, hence a nutty, long production schedule preventing the filmmaker from doing anything else for a good year or so.

But do you think adding Jason Statham to the franchise is going to hurt or help the next movie/s? Guess he does know his way around a car – having done “Death Race” and “The Transporter”? But still, is it too many cooks in the kitchen? Who thinks the emphasis should still be on Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s characters and not all these other revheads who have been introduced in recent movies?