Diesel: FAST 7 Will Begin A Third Trilogy

Actress Michelle Rodriguez annouced in earlier this month that she hopes to retire from acting to begin pursuing a new career in screenwriting. However, it is not likely this will soon happen until after the filming of the upcoming Fast And Furious 7. And with further emphasis on the film, new reports at HitFix, suggest actor Vin Diesel has no plans on letting the franchise go just yet.

“‘7’ is the beginning of the next trilogy in the thought-out story,” Diesel says. “The three stories of 7, 8 and 9 are mapped out in a structure, even if they’re not signed off on,…The direction of 7, 8 and 9 is clear.”

Vin Diesel has been with the Fast And Furious franchise off-and-on since the first film, directed by Rob Cohen, which debuted in 2001 and earned major success enough two sequels. It wasn’t until the third film, The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift directed by Justin Lin, that Diesel made a cameo near the end, provided he follow up with a script of his own for the next film. Low and behold, announced as the first of a second trilogy, Lin would return to helm the fourth installment, Fast And Furious, reuniting select members of the cast from previous films, in addition to a new cast, including Diesel, along with Paul Walker, and actresses Gal Gadot and Jordana Brewster, and cameos by Rodriguez, and Tokyo Drift’s Sung Kang.

Explaining all this are Diesel’s own film philiosophies about sequels, which he made clear in an interview with Screenrant while promoting the 2011 release of Fast Five which saw the return of Gadot along with actor Matt Schulze, along with Tyrese Gibson, Elsa Pataky and Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges, in additon to performing artists Tego Calderon and Don Omar, and blockbuster action star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Diesel tells the press:

“When I first did The Fast and the Furious, I didn’t want there to be a sequel on the first one. I thought, ‘Why would you rush to do a sequel just because your first film is successful?’ I’ve always had kind of an allergic reaction to taking a reactionary approach to a sequel. My gut feeling about sequels is that they should be premeditated. You should try to write a trilogy first or at least sketch out a trilogy if you have any faith in your film.”

Diesel is also invested in the franchise as one of the producers of the ‘Fast’ franchise since the fourth film, along with the upcoming September release of Riddick, and is expected to star in the third film of the XXX action franchise, XXX: The Return Of Xander Cage.

Director James Wan will helm ‘Fast 7’ with Diesel and other series regulars returning, including actor Jason Statham for a July 11, 2014 release from Universal. Fast And Furious 6 opens in North America on May 24, 2013.