With more than a billion dollars adding to the $3.78 billion milestone Universal Pictures left off with this summer, clearly the studio isn’t running dry any time soon. As such, the studio is well underway in developing a slate of prequels and spin-offs following this year’s stellar Spring success of Furious Seven.
In an exclusive report from Variety, actor and franchise producer Vin Diesel confirmed that more films are in the works for the franchise in a fashion similar to that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what Walt Disney Pictures is doing for Star Wars. “We’ve written out story lines for various characters,” said Diesel, who starred in the first film in 2001 prior to starring in and producing the last four. “We’ve been playing with it for a long time. It’s a very rich property and we’re committed to treating it.”
The report comes more than a year after Justin Lin, who helmed all but three of the of the Fast And Furious movies, was being courted as a possible helmer for a potential multi-film finale. To that end, nothing is yet official while things remain preliminary beyond what has already been confirmed for the April 14, 2017 release of Fast And Furious 8, for which A Man Apart helmer F. Gary Gray will be directing.
“We have a director who is going to bring the darkness out and bring out the character,” said Diesel in conjunction with the rest of the report suggesting the films beyond the trilogy will shift its emphasis some.
“You can’t keep having every movie have bigger and bigger stunts forever and ever and ever,” said Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Jeff Shell. “Eventually you have to really focus on the story. We’ll still have big stunts but bringing in this amazing storyteller is going to be great.”
At any rate, film will be a major departure from Gray’s last hit film, Straight Outta Compton in August. With an ensemble cast in store for the new films as well as the trilogy, it definitely leaves enough room on the road for this race once it begins.
As for the main final trilogy, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordanna Brewster, Dwayne Johnson, Christopher Bridges, Tyrese Gibson and more are expected to return in the years ahead with further reason to believe Johnson’s own spin-off hopes may finally come true. At any rate though, fans of the previous films can expect each film to lend an adoring nod to fellow franchise star and late actor Paul Walker since his death two years ago.
“Paul won’t be in it, but he’ll be represented in some form or another but whether his image is in it, I can’t tell you yet, but he won’t be in the film as a performer, as an actor, the way we did it last time,” said NBCUniversal VP Ron Meyer. “It will still be ‘Fast and Furious,’ it will just be without Paul.”
Stay tuned for more info!