For Fast and Furious fans, now's as rough a time as ever given the recent tragic death of one of the series' leading stars; Paul Walker. But following the actor's death, Universal has announced that they will still be moving forward with the upcoming Fast and Furious 7, which was in the middle of production when the tragedy occurred. The film has since vacated it's original July 2014 release date, and is under going script rewrites, and now rumor has it that Walker's younger brother Cody may come on board to finish off the remaining scenes featuring the Brian O'Conner character, before he's given a proper send off.
The rumor comes courtesy of
Daily Mail, who claims Cody will be used in unfinished scenes that featured Paul, and close ups may be completed using CGI rendering. Director James Wan (
The Conjuring), who just recently came on board to replacement Justin Lin for the seventh installment, is likely looking to use Cody's likeness as a filler for the film's final scenes featuring Brian O'Conner. In past cases where a main actor has died during a film's production such has been done for Heath Ledger in
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Brandon Lee in
The Crow, the stunt double strategy has been used, so it's likely that Cody won't really have any dialogue in the film.
Now while the inclusion of Walker's brother may help to give a proper send-off for the Brian O'Conner character, it still doesn't fill the void that will be left by his absence. That being said, with the loss of two characters; Sung Kang's "Han", and (Recently cast
Wonder Woman) Gal Gadot's "Gisele", the franchise is potentially in trouble when it comes to creating new characters two join the team for upcoming installments. We've already learned that actor Djimon Hounsou (
Blood Diamond) and Kurt Russell (
Miracle) will be joining the next film to some degree, and actor Lucas Black is looking to reprise his role from
Tokyo Drift. But this still leaves an empty spot for a younger character to work off of Vin Diesel's Dominic Torreto.
The series needs a new character who could take on the action role, fast paced driving scenes, and also taking on Jason Statham's newly implemented antagonist Ian Shaw. A personal suggestion I have in mind is Chris Pine (
Star Trek Into Darkness), who could provide a young risk taker type character that would work well along with the rest of the cast. Possibly in order to keep the franchise alive, the
FF7 and assimilate a cast consisting of well developed actors in order to create a solid team. The original plan was to cap off the franchise at 8-10 films, which is the most likely option depending on the success of
Fast and Furious 7. In response to the death of the beloved Paul Walker, we can be assured that the franchise will receive the upmost support from its fans, and we expect to see possibly one of the greatest films the franchise has to offer from director James Wan.
On a side note, we at
Turbo-Exp would like to take this opportunity to pay our condolences to Walker's family and friends. Never do we understand the concept of death, when it will potentially call upon us, the day in which our actions prior reflect the lifestyle in which we have chosen to live. We'd like to pay tribute to Paul Walker by remembering what a young and talented man he was in his life time. Being that he died in such a tragic accident, we not only would like to send our blessings to his family, but also that of the other young man who died in the car crash.
How do you feel about Cody Walker helping finish Paul's scenes in Fast and Furious 7? What new actors would you like to see join the team for upcoming films? Sound off below.
