A whole lot of exciting news about Fast and Furious 8 was revealed over the past week, owing to a Variety exclusive.

Could Mia Toretto Return For Furious 7 Sequel?

The entertainment publication caught up with a bunch of people involved with the project, including actor and producer Vin Diesel, director F. Gary Gray, Universal Chairman Donna Langley, and NBC Universal vice-chairman, Ron Meyer.

The team made known some very interesting developments about the movie including the fact that the franchise is planning a whole set of prequels and sequels.

The Wire's Idris Elba To Join Fast and Furious 8?

Diesel revealed that the team was working on various storylines to make this happen. "We've written out story lines for various characters," he said. "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."

Langley hinted about how there was scope to do a lot with the variety of characters they had in the series. "We're certainly in conversations about how we can expand the franchise now," she said. "It's an ensemble cast and there's room to bring characters in and out."

Meyer put to rest rumors about the possibility of Paul Walker's character Brian O'Connor being brought back with the help of CGI and body doubles in Fast and Furious 8.

"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 suggested that Gray was brought on board to steer the franchise in a new, possibly "darker" direction. The Straight Outta Compton director, who has worked with Diesel on A Man Apart, will be expected to bring some grit into the Furious series.

"We have a director who is going to bring the darkness out and bring out the character," Diesel said.

For his part, Gray is just ready to delve into a new exciting project like Fast and Furious, taking a different direction from his previous project.

"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," he said.

Jeff Shell, the chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group also revealed that Gray will help achieve the vision the studio has for the future of the series.

"You can't keep having every movie have bigger and bigger stunts forever and ever and ever," said 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."

Fast and Furious 8 will be released on April 15, 2017.

Furious 7 hit theaters on April 3, 2015.

Tags
Fast and Furious 8, Movies