Paul Walker had no idea what he was getting into when he starred in the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious. Walker had become a breakout heartthrob of 1990s cult-classic movies like Pleasantville, Varsity Blues, and She’s All That. However, in 2001, he made the jump to leading man in two films: the highway thriller Joy Ride and The Fast and the Furious, a crime-heist movie set in the underground world of urban street racing. It turned out to be the movie that took Walker’s career to the next level, until his life was cut tragically short.
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After filming so many films about vehicular racing and mayhem, Paul Walker died in a 2013 car crash while filming Furious 7. The Fast & Furious franchise has continued for three more installments since passed, with an eleventh and final film, Fast Forever, on the horizon. Vin Diesel has been promising that the final film would bring back Walker’s character in some way, but now, Paul Walker’s family has something to say about that.
Paul Walker’s Brother Addresses The Final Fast & Furious Movie & Brian’s Potential Return
After Paul Walker’s death, the cast and crew of Furious 7 had to scramble to figure out how to complete the film without him. Walker’s real-life brothers Cody and Caleb Walker were brought in to complete the film, while the visual effects team used advanced CGI face-swapping technology to transform Cody and Caleb into Paul. That process culminated with a final poignant scene in Furious 7 of Diesel’s Dominic Toretto pulling up next to Walker’s Brian O’Conner, mimicking their climactic race from the first film. It was a symbolic send-off for both Paul Walker and the Brian O’Conner character, who was written out of the franchise by having him “retire” from crime capers to raise his kids with Dom’s sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster).
That gray area of Brian being still alive but just not around has worked for The Fate of the Furious, Fast 9, and Fast X; however, many fans were hoping Fast Forever would feature another appearance from Brian, as a means of true closure. Vin Diesel has been perfectly fine with stoking fans’ hopes on that front; however, the Walker family is speaking up and saying: it won’t be them making it happen.
“I would not be interested in doing that again. I love the way his character exited the franchise. They didn’t kill him off; they didn’t do something cheesy like that. It’s beautiful; [Brian] is off raising his kids,” Cody Walker told EW recently.
The youngest Walker brother did point to the only person who should hold the decision-making power about where and how Paul’s likeness gets used: “My stance is, it’s what Meadow wants to see done; it’s her father.”
Meadow Rain Walker (27) is Paul’s daughter with Rebecca Soteros, and a professional model. She also happens to be Vin Diesel’s goddaughter, whom he has publicly supported for years. Needless to say, her opinion carries a ton of weight with Vin Diesel and the entire Fast Forever creative team.
“If they want to do that, if Meadow would like to see that, they don’t need me or Caleb,” Cody Walker continued. “AI was not a thing back in 2014, so they could do that. There are years of footage that was never used from these other Fast films. They’re the best in the business; they can figure that out.”
Being on set to film Furious 7 so soon after their brother’s death probably carried some level of trauma for Cody and Caleb Walker; it’s easy to understand them not wanting to reopen those scars. More to the point, Cody is right: a capable stunt actor is much more qualified to take Paul’s place on set; face-swapping technology has come so far that anyone can be turned into the new Brian.
Fast Forever is in development at Universal Pictures.
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Forum Conversation: Does Avengers: Doomsday Have Too Many Characters to Tell a Good Story?
Go to ForumI’m worried about that too. It would have to be a 6-hour movie to give everyone enough screen time. I know they will be using Doctor Doom for multiple movies, but I also wish they could have built it up a little or at least two parts.
I’m not too excited for Doomsday because of that. I feel it can become a cameo fest with very little story to hold it together.
I’m extremely excited for Avengers: Doomsday, but the closer we get to the movie, the more I wonder if its biggest strength could also become its biggest problem: there are a LOT of characters in this movie.
We’re getting Avengers, the Fantastic Four, X-Men and characters from several different corners of the Marvel universe. On paper, that sounds incredible. But bringing all these characters together is the easy part. Giving enough of them something meaningful to do is much harder.
Infinity War and Endgame had enormous casts, but they also had an advantage. By the time we reached those movies, we’d already spent years with most of those characters. Doomsday is bringing together characters who don’t necessarily share that history.
I’m especially curious about the Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom is one of the most important Fantastic Four characters in Marvel history, so it would feel strange if Reed Richards and the rest of the team weren’t important to a story built around Doom. At the same time, this is still an Avengers movie.
I’m also hoping characters like Cyclops and Gambit actually get something meaningful to do. If this ends up being one of our last opportunities to see some of these versions of the X-Men before the MCU moves forward with its own X-Men, I’d hate for their appearances to amount to little more than cameos.
I don’t think everyone needs equal screen time, though. Infinity War worked because it divided its huge cast into smaller groups and allowed different characters to carry different parts of the story. Doomsday may need to do something similar.
I want the huge battles and those moments where characters from completely different Marvel movies finally meet. That’s part of the fun. But I also want those moments to matter because there’s a good story holding everything together.
Do you think Doomsday has too many characters to balance successfully? And if everyone can’t have a major role, which characters absolutely need to be at the center of the story? Or is the massive scale the whole point, a way to establish Doctor Doom as a major threat before Marvel slows things down again afterward?