Fast & Furious Franchise Rumored To Be Ending

With a seventh film hitting theaters this year that connects all of its previous installments including the somewhat out-of-character Tokyo Drift, Deadline is reporting that Universal's The Fast and the Furious franchise could be wrapping up soon.

While Justin Lin, the filmmaker who saved the franchise from seeming oblivion, has already moved on to do another Aaron Cross movie under the Bourne brand, it now appears as though that movie has been back-burnered and Lin may instead return to -- and wrap up -- the Furious films.

After Deadline exclusively revealed that Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass would reteam for another Bourne Identity franchise film, that film took precedence over the Aaron Cross film Lin plans to direct with Jeremy Renner and that film is being readied for 2016. And then Universal released the trailer for Furious 7, and 100 million people viewed it over 48 hours.  I am not getting anything from the studio on this, but here?s what I hear: I expect Lin and Universal to begin talking again about him directing a multi-part production that will lead to multiple movies shot together and will wave the checkered flag on the Fast & Furious franchise.

Fast & Furious 7, due in theaters in April, has already generated more than 100 million views of its recently-released trailer and is expected to be one of the biggest films in 2015's blockbuster-loaded schedule. Universal did not comment for the Deadline story.