Surely we all saw this one coming... Following the massive success of the more recent entries, it looks like we should prepare for more of the street racers and associated criminals, lawmen, friends and lovers as Vin Diesel says the Fast & Furious team is in the early stages of developing spin-offs.
“We’ve written out story lines for various characters,” Diesel tells Variety. “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.” Now, as anyone who follows his Facebook proclamations knows, Diesel says a lot of things, promising sequels and other films, not all of which come to pass. But this time, Fast And Furious studio backers Universal seem only too happy to keep the universe expanding. “We’re certainly in conversations about how we can expand the franchise now,” Universal boss Donna Langley confirms. “It’s an ensemble cast and there’s room to bring characters in and out.”
So prepare yourself (we'd speculate) for the story of how Dom’s beloved 1970 Dodge Charger was constructed by Toretto and his dad, and, if Dwayne Johnson has his way, a series of Luke Hobbs films. But that’s all for the future, and still thrumming away in the development garage. The focus at the moment is the eighth instalment of the main franchise, due in April 2017, with F. Gary Gray directing the next chunk in a planned trilogy. “We have a director who is going to bring the darkness out and bring out the character,” says Diesel, pointing to something along the lines of their previous collaboration, A Man Apart. Which does make us wonder why you’d take a film series that has become known and praised for being full of crazy action and fun characters and turn it dark. “You can’t keep having every movie have bigger and bigger stunts forever and ever and ever,” says Universal’s Jeff Shell. “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.”
Booo! Stunts first. Stunts first! We refuse to eat our Furious vegetables.