The final instalment of The Fast And The Furious franchise has been in pre-production hell for so long now, the memory of the last movie has pretty much faded. Cliffhangers only work if the follow up comes relatively quickly. At this stage, Dom and the fambly might as well have actually perished at the climax of the last movie.
We know, however, that they will be back. It looks like the late Paul Walker may be coming with them via the magic of AI.
Walker died in 2013, partway through production on the seventh movie. His younger brothers Cody and Caleb helped complete the film by being stand-ins, and digital face mapping did the rest.
Now Cody says he isn’t really interested in helping digitally resurrect his late brother for the upcoming final instalment for Universal Pictures. Vin Diesel has hinted that Brian could return for the upcoming eleventh and final instalment, but Vin Diesel says a lot.
In an interview with EW, Cody Walker says if that’s the case, it won’t be with him filling in:
“My stance is, it’s what [Paul’s daughter] Meadow wants to see done; it’s her father. I would not be interested in doing that again.
I love the way his character exited the franchise. They didn’t kill him off; they didn’t do something cheesy like that. It’s beautiful; [Brian] is off raising his kids.
But if they want to do that, if Meadow would like to see that, they don’t need me or Caleb. AI was not a thing back in 2014, so they could do that. There are years of footage that was never used from these other Fast films. They’re the best in the business; they can figure that out.”
They had previously said that they would be willing to help out if it is a small cameo and done tastefully.
Fast Forever is currently slated to open March 17th 2028, but as production hasn’t even been confirmed, and with a giant roster of actors to be marshalled, the chances of that must be considered as slim at this point.
