Reeling from the tragic death last November of star Paul Walker, the team behind the seventh Fast & Furious film opted to put production on hiatus and shift the release date to 2015 to accommodate necessary changes. Now, via director James Wan’s Instagram account, we know that they’re back at work.
With writer Chris Morgan handed the time to drastically alter the script and change the plot to account for the sudden disappearance of Walker’s character Brian O’Connor from the film, shooting has geared back up again in Abu Dhabi. There has been no statement from either Universal or regular **F&F **cheerleader Vin Diesel on what might be done to the film to work around Walker’s absence, and while rumours have surfaced about body doubles and CG to complete his scenes, nothing official has emerged.
What we do know is that Diesel, alongside the current regular cast including Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, will be around with more recent addition Dwayne Johnson and newcomers to the franchise such as Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa and Ronda Rousey.
The plot may have significantly changed, but we do know that Dom and co will have to deal with Statham as the brother of **Fast 6 **nemesis Luke Evans’ Owen Shaw, and that he won’t be an easy villain to take down. Fast & Furious 7 will be released on April 10, 2015.