On 30th November 2013, we tragically lost Paul Walker, star of the phenomenally popular FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise, when he met an untimely death as he and a friend drove home from a charity event.
The news shocked Hollywood with stars en-masse taking to social networks, personal websites etc to express their sadness upon hearing the news. Walker had been in the process of filming the 7th instalment of the street-racing film series when the accident happened, leaving director James Wan, and writer Chris Morgan with the terrible feat of overcoming their grief as well as trying to salvage the new film. The release date has been pushed back to April 2015 in order for the cast to come to terms with the news, and to give the production team time to consider the best way for the beloved Brian O’Conner to bow out.
They decided very early on that restarting the project would not be an option as they believed it wouldn’t be fair to Walker’s memory or fans. We reported a short while ago that Walker’s younger brother Cody, who looks startlingly like his older sibling, had been approached to help shoot some new footage to wrap around what was already in the can. Now they’re reporting that studio Universal, alongside Wan and Morgan have, after reviewing all footage, decided to tweak the script in a way that will allow Walker’s character of Brian O’Conner to retire.
Having O’Connor retire seems much better than the other options of either cutting him from the movie entirely, or have him be killed off. The latter would have been seen as more than a little insensitive given the unfortunate manner in which the actor died. Just how the retirement will work has yet to be disclosed, but seeing as during the conclusion of most of the previous films the characters have ‘retired’ only to return the next time, the team will have to pull something pretty special for it to be a believable retirement. By creating this ‘out’, it is hoped that the franchise would be able to continue on in a different direction. How well this will pan-out again remains to be seen as O’Conner is the character that introduced us to the world of Dom and streetcars, and is seen by the audience as the heart, conscience and ‘glue’ of the group.
FAST AND FURIOUS 7, directed by James Wan, and starring Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne Johnson, and Jordana Brewster is set for release on 10th April 2015.
Source: THR
