Vin Diesel dropped a few major announcements about the next Fast & Furious movie this weekend, starting with its projected release date — April of 2027. Diesel shared the news himself, speaking directly to a crowd of fans at Fuel Fest 2025. He said that in negotiations with the studio, Universal, he had insisted on three things for this franchise finale. First, it must return to Los Angeles, and second, it must return to its core focus on the street-racing subculture. Lastly, Diesel said that the final movie would reunite his character Dom Torretto with the other main character, Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker). Walker passed away during the filming of Furious 7 back in 2013, so it’s unclear how he will appear in this final movie.
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Diesel appeared to be as confident and in-control as Dom Torretto at his own hometown car show, Race Wars. Videos from Fuel Fest showed him explaining his deal with Universal to the crowd, pausing for occasional bouts of cheering. None of these announcements are too surprising, and all of them have been discussed among fans for years. The biggest question mark is how exactly Brian will appear, and many commenters are already nervous about how he will look.
Walker died in a car crash in 2013, when his filming for Furious 7 was nearly completed. The movie was finished with the help of his two brothers, who posed as stand-ins for him in all the remaining shots. Walker’s face was then digitally grafted onto them. Rather than writing the character off, the series has continued with Brian always in the background, unable to join each mission but not far away, either.
Diesel is an active producer on the Fast Saga movies as well as a star, and he and his colleagues have often hinted that they would put Brian back on the screen somehow. For the most part, fans and critics have assumed that they will do so with more body doubles and CGI, but there’s also the possibility he will be recast as well. However, as studios have embraced digital rendering and de-aging more and more, it seems likely that Brian’s farewell will feature Walker’s familiar face.
As for the return to L.A. and street-racing subculture, this is something Diesel and fans have talked about for years as well. The franchise got a breath of new life in 2009 when it pivoted to outlaw crime drama, and since then it has strayed far into the realm of spy thriller and even science fiction. Ending the series more simply is a choice that will please many fans, especially as the planned spinoffs can continue to go in any directions they want.
The next Fast Saga movie — tentatively titled Fast X Part 2 — is now slated for release in April of 2027. Previous movies are scattered across multiple streamers at the time of this writing, but most of them are on Netflix, including the first three consecutive titles.
