After Paul Walker’s death, Furious 7 completed the film without him in a touching send off tribute. But could his character appear again in the franchise?
Without a doubt, Furious 7 was a mega hit in 2015. However, some of that success was propelled by the unfortunate death of the film’s star, Paul Walker. In November 2013, Walker died in a car crash. This left the franchise with the painful task of completing the next The Fast and the Furious installment without him.
According to behind-the-scenes featurettes of the film, Walker was only halfway through production. Further, Universal Studios and director James Wan considered scrapping the film altogether with respect to Walker. But thanks to CGI and the help of his brothers, Universal completed the film and released it in April 2015.
Not only did Universal release the film, but the franchise opted not to kill the character. In fact, the most heartbreaking aspect of the film was the each character got a chance to say goodbye. The audience watched Paul Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner, move on with his life and choose a life of a family man with his wife, child and another on the way. The film ended with Brian and Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) driving down two separate roads instead of racing toward an imaginary finish line.
Admittedly, as beautiful as it is, I still can’t sit through the whole film without tearing up and turning it off.
Of course, when Fast 8 rolls into theaters, Walker won’t be there again. CGI advanced an even longer way since 2015, but Fast 7 completed the character’s story beautifully. And with such a beautiful tribute added to the end of the film, it wouldn’t make sense to try to add him again. In Vin Diesel terms, it’s a matter of “pixels versus people.”
Still, it looks like Dom’s going through a bit of a phase as he turns away from his family. Could that have something to do with Brian’s departure?
According to screenwriter Chris Morgan, the answer is … sort of.
"[Fast 7] came out, did really well, and technically could have been the end of the franchise. We all agreed that we weren’t going to continue it unless there was a story that was so different, and really felt right for our characters."
Furthermore, in an interview Entertainment Tonight last September, Paul Walker’s brothers, Caleb and Cody, discussed the future of Brian O’Conner:
"“I had a phone call with Vin for about an hour and we really discussed this a while back. He wanted [our] blessing,” Caleb said, adding that Diesel asked if and when they thought it “would be acceptable to maybe bring Paul’s character back… to really kind of let his fans know he’s still out there.”"
At this point, I wouldn’t hold your breath because, you know, it still feels too soon. But that doesn’t mean we won’t see Brian again in a franchise that still has a lot of life in it.
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TL;DR — don’t expect Brian to appear in Fast 8 in anything but name only, if that. But because of Hollywood, don’t completely rule it out forever either.
The Fate of the Furious opens in theaters this Friday, April 14.