Furious 8 Producer Discusses Future Without Paul Walker

Without Paul Walker to lead the upcoming Fast and Furious 8, will the speed-racing franchise stall out?

It's not likely, but with the sequel scheduled to hit theaters in 2017, Fast and Furious fans are already wondering how the series will move forward without the familiar face.

Walker, who charted the venerable franchise as Brian O'Connor until his untimely death halfway through Furious 7's production, will no longer anchor the next installment. But that doesn't mean Universal Studios will put any narrative breaks on Fast and Furious' eighth film. As series producer Neal H. Moritz recently explained in a recent interview, the Furious Franchise will still put its characters behind the wheel--both literally and figuratively.

As he told Screen Rant.

"We're trying to do what we always do, which is try to come at it from a character point of view and figure out where the characters would go from here. I think the thing that's made The Fast and the Furious special is obviously we have incredible action and so on. But the thing that people really relate to the most is the characters. We're lucky that we have a lot of great characters. Unfortunately, we don't have Paul anymore. His character… has moved on. But we feel like there's a lot still to be mined. That's where we're starting. We're really talking about the characters, where they all sit right now. It's a huge challenge."

Indeed, the franchise has a wealth other bankable stars to concentrate on. With Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, and other Hollywood heavyweights rounding the series' cast, Fast and Furious 8 could easily shift its narrative focus elsewhere. But what do you think, readers? Where would you like to see Furious 8 go? Let us know in the comments below.

Fast and Furious 8 cruises into theaters on April 17, 2017.