Paul Walker’s family wants him back for more Fast & Furious, here’s how that’ll happen
Paul Walker’s brothers want his character to return for more Fast & Furious films. And they have Vin Diesel’s blessing.
Paul Walker might return for future Fast & Furious adventures, according to his family. Walker, who died in a car crash in 2013, was one of the central stars of the action series, which has gone on to become one of the world’s highest grossing movie franchises.
When Paul Walker passed away in a car crash mid-production on Furious 7, the world mourned. Director James Wan and Universal Pictures put the film on hold as they mulled on how to proceed without one of the franchise’s biggest stars - or whether or not to go forward at all. Then, with the help of Walker’s brothers and some impressive visual effects, Walker was given a fitting sendoff in the film.
Caleb and Cody Walker told the Associated Press during the publicity tour for a documentary on their brother that a similar strategy could be used in future instalments of the franchise in a ‘tasteful’ cameo. “I just hope we get to — I don’t know — have a little cameo and bring Paul back to save the day and I get to help create that again. That’s my dream and I hope we get to do that in one of the future movies,” Caleb said. And Cody added, “I think there could potentially be a way to do it. But it would take a lot of thought and it’d have to be tasteful. It would have to be tasteful. He was the real deal, the real car guy. And in his absence… I think it’s lost its way in a big way.”
The brothers have star Vin Diesel’s blessings. In a 2017 interview to Entertainment Tonight, Caleb said, “I had a phone call with Vin for about an hour and we really discussed this a while back. He wanted (our) blessing. (Diesel asked if it) would be acceptable to maybe bring Paul’s character back… to really kind of let his fans know he’s still out there.”
Crucially, the series did not kill off Walker’s fan favourite character. Instead, at the end of Furious 7, Brian O’Conner drove off into the sunset to live a peaceful life with his wife and kids.
His memory was invoked in the Fate of the Furious, when Diesel’s character names his son Brian. Face mapping and motion capture were used to bring back to life the late actor Peter Cushing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The brothers hope for a similar technique to bring Walker back. They doubled for him for his remaining scenes in Furious 7.
The series’ next instalment has been delayed to make room for a spin-off film, featuring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Jason Statham’s characters, due out in 2019. Fast & Furious 9 will arrive in 2020, and a tenth film will be released in 2021.
