Brooke Bunny
“Fast & Furious 7” – or “Furious 7” as it’s known outside of Australia – has only just premiered around the globe, but it hasn’t stopped fans from wondering whether the series will go on – particularly now that one of the original leads (the late Paul Walker) is no longer with us.
While the consensus is that no official talks will take place for a while, and that everyone simply acknowledge and respect the passing of Walker, cast and crew do seem to hint that they will be back.. sometime. And we all know, if “Fast & Furious 8” makes as much money as online punters predict it will this weekend that Universal will be wanting to get the signature of Vin Diesel and his assemblage of petrol heads on a docket by Monday – so they can at least start developing something. The “Fast & Furious” franchise, even without Walker, is too big a brand to let go – and they know it.
Before his death, Walker had noted that Universal wanted to go all the way up to “Fast & Furious 10”, with discussions already in progress at that stage – the actor had just begun filming the current sequel – on the eighth film in the chapter. Obviously a lot changed when Walker was tragically killed in November of 2013, most notably the direction of the story (Brian O’Conner had a much different arc in “Furious 7” than the one he now has). The film now on screens ends somewhat conclusively, suggesting if the studio and, more importantly, Vin Diesel, did decide to stop here – they could.
A lot of the important decisions might come down to star Vin Diesel, whose production company One Race Films has been involved in the recent “Fast” sequels – resulting in Diesel getting a lot of say when it comes to the future of the franchise. If he didn’t want to do another, chances are… they wouldn’t.
Speaking to Australia’s The Herald-Sun, Diesel said he’s open to the next chapter – as Walker had said, and Diesel reiterates, the studio had already expressed interest in doing a couple more before “Furious 7” was in production – even going so far as to suggest who’ll be co-starring in it.
Kurt Russell.
Russell, who makes his “Furious” debut in the current film as the mysterious good-guy Mr. Nobody, would be back for an even bigger role in the next film.
“The Kurt Russell character you see in this movie was actually inserted because of (the planned next instalment)”, says 47-year-old Diesel. “His story kicks in in 8 and it all makes sense should that day come to pass.”
Both Diesel and co-star Tyrese Gibson have also hinted that, should the next film come to be, it’ll be set in the Big Apple. And it’s a storyline involving Russell’s character that takes them there.
“We really hired [Kurt] because of a story that follows this that takes place in New York”, the actor told Jimmy Kimmel this week.
Also back for more, Lucas Black – who reprises his “Fast & Furious : Tokyo Drift” role for “Fast & Furious 7” – though only briefly. He’s been contracted to appear in two more films, so they could be shaping his character to take over, in some respect, for fellow Blonde speed-man O’Conner.
Apparently “Fast & Furious 7” is meant to be the start of a new trilogy – in the same way “Fast & Furious”, “Fast & Furious 5”, and “Fast & Furious 7” were. And these next two movies would conclude Dominic Toretto’s story in much the same way “Furious 7” did O’Conner’s.
Chris Morgan, the writer of the last few “Furious” films, tells our own Lisa Carroll that
