‘Fast & Furious’ Individual Character Spinoffs In the Works
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The “Fast and Furious” franchise may take a page from “Star Wars” and Marvel. Producer and star Vin Diesel tells Variety that the team behind the fast cars and criminals series is in the preliminary stages of developing prequels and spinoffs.
“We’ve written out story lines for various characters,” said Diesel. “We’ve been playing with it for a long time. It’s a very rich property and we’re committed to treating it with a lot of class.”
The actor did not say which characters would get their own standalone films, but in the past, Dwayne Johnson has hinted that he’d like to see his character, Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs, branch out into independent adventures.
If the actors are game for some universe building it sounds like the studio is willing to back the projects. Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley confirmed that talks were taking place about ways to broaden the series’ reach.
“We’re certainly in conversations about how we can expand the franchise now,” said Langley. “It’s an ensemble cast and there’s room to bring characters in and out.”
If Universal does go forward with launching spinoffs and prequels, it will be aping a strategy successfully employed by the “Avengers” movies and one being embraced by “Star Wars,” which is augmenting a new trilogy with origin stories focused on Han Solo and others.
For now, however, the focus remains on creating three more “Fast and Furious” sequels. Diesel and Universal brass promise that the upcoming films will be different in tone from the adventures that preceded them. That’s why the studio brought in F. Gary Gray, the director of “Straight Outta Compton” to guide the eighth film in the series.
“We have a director who is going to bring the darkness out and bring out the character,” said Diesel, who promises that the film will be similar to his previous collaboration with the director, the gritty 2003 thriller “A Man Apart.”
The “Fast and Furious” films are known for their gravity-defying car races, but the studio wants to shift the emphasis in the next installment.
“You can’t keep having every movie have bigger and bigger stunts forever and ever and ever,” said Jeff Shell, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “Eventually you have to really focus on the story. We’ll still have big stunts but bringing in this amazing storyteller is going to be great.”
For his part, Gray says the series will be a departure from the rap epic he just finished making. “I’m a fan of the cars and the world and after being on ‘Straight’ for four years, it was time to have some fun,”
Shell admits that nothing lasts forever, but he believes that after more than a decade of movies, the success of the most recent chapter, “Furious 7,” indicates that the series is still growing its audience. It was the first film in the series to top $1 billion and benefited from the growth of foreign markets like China, where it made over $390 million.
“It’s at its peak now,” said Shell. “By the way, internationally something people forget is yes, this is ‘Furious 7,’ but probably half the people around the globe that saw ‘Furious 7’ hadn’t seen any of the other ‘Fast and Furious’ films in the theater. It’s new in China to them, it’s new in Russia to them, it’s new in most of Latin America, so this is a series that’s accelerating in my view, not slowing down.”
The most recent “Fast and Furious” film had added resonance to longtime fans of the series. Star Paul Walker was killed in an off-set car accident while production was taking place. In the wake of his death, Universal considered cancelling the film, before ultimately deciding to complete the project by relying on body doubles and digital effects.
“We would never have done this without all of Paul’s family agreeing.,” said Ron Meyer, vice-chairman of NBCUniversal. “We would not have done it without everybody in the cast agreeing. We took great pains to make sure that before we said, ‘yes lets go forward with this film,’ we knew that we were doing the right thing. Not only because there was a big investment involved, but because a young man’s life had been lost and he had a daughter and friends and family.”
Diesel praises the Universal team for the restraint it showed in dealing with Walker’s death.
“They took such a high road and allowed us to honor our brother in such a powerful way,” said Diesel, who praises Meyer and Langley with allowing Walker’s character to ride off into the sunset instead of dying in the film. “Another studio couldn’t have helped themselves by exploiting that in the plot,” he said.
Meyer said that the script for “Furious 7” always depicted Walker’s character’s struggling to come to terms with the criminal life he led and voicing a desire to abandon heists to be with his family. Those themes allowed the filmmakers to send off Walker’s character in a more organic way, although Meyer acknowledges that future “Fast and Furious” movies will be quite different without the involvement of one of the key actors.
“Paul won’t be in it, but he’ll be represented in some form or another but whether his image is in it, I can’t tell you yet, but he won’t be in the film as a performer, as an actor, the way we did it last time,” said Meyer. “It will still be ‘Fast and Furious,’ it will just be without Paul.”
Diesel has said he believes there are three more “Fast and Furious” films left in him, but Universal brass hinted there might be some flexibility with that figure.
“Vin has a vision in his mind for three more, so let’s get three more done and then see where we are from there,” said Shell. “Everything has an end, so I don’t think our expectation is we’re going to have a hundred of them…To me ‘Fast and Furious’ has become no different than a beloved series that comes on every year. ”
For more on the future of “Fast and Furious” check out Variety’s cover story this week on Universal Pictures.
Comments
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Enough is enough
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I like the fact that Gary Gray will handle this film. They're taking the right approach by "bringing back down to earth." No more flying cars. That was bs. I didn't know he directed A Man A Part. Dude has an impressive resume.
I can see him bringing the movie back to the Cali vibe. Bring the focus back to the cars & the story lines. I'm looking forward to it.
As far as the solo prequels, they should do one for Han. I'd check for that 1 & Vin Diesel with Letty.
I'll pass on the rest
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numbaz...80's baby wrote: »
As far as the solo prequels, they should do one for Han. I'd check for that 1 & Vin Diesel with Letty.
Exactly. You saved me having to type any more. -
I dont know how to feel about this yet
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Black_Samson wrote: »a man apart was trash.
watch that ? now and bet you agree.
Word. I never even had to rewatch it to know this. Once was enough,
Oh and give Cole Hauser's character from 2 Fast 2 Furious one of these spin offs if they're so inclined to make em.
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Black_Samson wrote: »Black_Samson wrote: »a man apart was trash.
watch that ? now and bet you agree.
Word. I never even had to rewatch it to know this. Once was enough,
Oh and give Cole Hauser's character from 2 Fast 2 Furious one of these spin offs if they're so inclined to make em.
bruh... nah... give bow wow his own spinoff.
You must be snorting Ajax cause Bow Wow was hands down the worst part of Tokyo Drift.
I want to see the drug dealer get his revenge on Tyrese and Paul......oh wait!!! -
Only one that deserve one is rocks character imo
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I want to see a Jesse, Leon and Vince comedic spinoff that takes place during the first fast and the furious or Johnny tran vs Han. Lol
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Whatever happened to James Remar's character?
Give him a movie. It's ? Ajax and Ganz from 48 Hours. He's contributed a lot more to movies than ? Tyrese. -
Forget about it cuh.
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Only movie I'd even think about seeing is the Rocks character and hopefully he'd be more of the ? from Fast 5 he was hilarious lol.
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what happened to these guys?
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Yea I'd like to see Hobbs get a spinoff maybe luda and tyrese characters in a joint movie that's about it
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UnknownUser wrote: »
They both did actually. -
UnknownUser wrote: »UnknownUser wrote: »
They both did actually.
So the producers said "? it call Tyrese, he don't give a ? " -
Yeah! Earn that paycheck tyrese
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UnknownUser wrote: »UnknownUser wrote: »
They both did actually.
So the producers said "? it call Tyrese, he don't give a ? "
Yep that's what vin said -
I'm in my ?