Fast 8 will be fresh and different, says director

We’re up to sequel number seven now for “Fast and the Furious” so it’d be understandable if each installment here on out did start to play like a cinematic clone of the previous chapter.

“Fast 8” Director F.Gary Gray tells Collider that that definitely won’t be the case with the next film in the series – describing the soon-to-lens sequel as “fresh” and “different”.

“I’m probably not at liberty to go too far into detail. All I have to say is I’m extremely excited about the direction we’re going in, and we’re really pushing to make sure the audience feels like it’s not more of the same. They feel like it’s fresh, they feel like the characters they’ve come to know and love are there, but this is gonna be different, and that’s probably the most I can give you right now.”

The filmmaker, out promoting the “Straight Outta Compton” (his 2015 offering) Blu-ray, says he hopes to be able to flesh out the characters a bit more in the new movie.

“It’s a combination of both. When you look at someone like J.J. Abrams who gives you the spectacle and great action set pieces but also gives you character and plotting and narrative, I think it’s my job—and my intention—to do both. You amp up everything, you work on the performances, you work on the story, you work on the action; it’s just not one thing. Hopefully I bring more to it, that’s part of the point is to bring something different to the franchise while still satisfying what the fans want.”

Gray worked with star and producer Vin Diesel on 2003’s “A Man Apart” and says it’s terrific collaborating with him again.

“We were both really excited to get back together and do it again. We talked about all of the Fast movies up to this point, and where could we go. I think he was really happy with the vision I have for the franchise and I was really happy about where he sees not only his character going but the franchise itself, because he’s a producer as well. So it was all love. Definitely all love.”

“Fast 8” -or whatever it’s called – will hit theaters April 14, 2017.