The late Kobe Bryant checked in with Vin Diesel after the death of his five-time Fast & Furious co-star Paul Walker, who died before completing work on the franchise’s seventh installment in 2013. When remembering Walker during the Fast & Furious 9 trailer unveiling and concert in Miami, Diesel said the world is “rocked to the core” by the Calabasas, California helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Bryant and eight others — daughter Gianna Bryant, John and Keri Altobelli, daughter Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah Chester, daughter Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, and pilot Ara Zobayan — on January 26.
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“Oh, my God, he’s always with me wherever I go,” Diesel told Extra when remembering Walker. “He’s a huge part of why we make these movies. And why we want them to be so significant. You feel his presence almost in every frame. Something that is so important, and why the quality has to be [there].”
Diesel and Walker headlined the first Fast and the Furious in 2001, reuniting in its fourth installment, Fast & Furious, in 2009. Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and Walker’s Brian O’Conner partnered up again in Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7. The James Wan-directed seventh entry, Walker’s final film, was the franchise’s first to earn more than $1 billion worldwide.
“He was the one that was with me 20 years ago, when this all started,” Diesel said. “And after every one of the sequels, after a premiere, him and I would walk off and he would say, ‘The best one is still in the can.’ That drives you to make the most powerful film you can make.”
Asked what Walker would say about F9, which brings back Dom’s sister and Brian’s wife, Mia (Jordana Brewster), Diesel replied, “There is nothing I wish more than he could be sitting next to me at the premiere. What would he say? That is the question of the day, that’s the question of the day.”
When talk turned to the loss of another star, Bryant, Diesel said there was “something so special about Kobe.”
“It’s such a shock for us. The world was rocked to the core,” he said. “He made this world a better world, and for some reason… obviously, there’s the Pablo comparison, the Paul Walker comparison, but what’s ironic is [Kobe] would say to me, ‘How are you doing? I know you miss your brother, Pablo.’”
The first F9 trailer released Friday paid tribute to Walker with an instrumental rendition of Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s “See You Again,” the hit song used to send off Walker’s Brian in the final minutes of Furious 7. The alternate version of the song is heard over a scene showing Dom’s young son, Brian, named after Walker’s character.
Diesel’s Fast & Furious co-star Tyrese Gibson mourned Bryant and the lives lost across multiple tributes shared to social media.
Fast & Furious 9 opens May 22.
