Vin Diesel has confirmed that filming on the eleventh and final installment of the Fast and Furious franchise will begin in December, with the film set for release in France on March 15, 2028.
The actor and producer, who plays Dominic Toretto in the series, first confirmed the project in May during an anniversary screening of the original film at the Cannes Film Festival. The Fast and Furious saga began 25 years ago as a street-racing action film and has since grown into one of Hollywood's biggest franchises, spanning ten previous installments. Diesel gave further details to Variety in August, saying shooting would finally start after several years of delay from the original schedule.
Diesel said he had worked with four successive teams of writers over four years of development to produce a script worthy of a finale. He said that when he read the script a few weeks ago, he burst into tears. The 59-year-old actor had already appeared emotional at Cannes alongside Meadow Walker, the daughter of his late co-star Paul Walker.
Fast Forever and its director
The eleventh film, nicknamed Fast Forever, is expected to be directed once again by French filmmaker Louis Leterrier, who also directed the previous installment, Fast X. Leterrier, however, cast some doubt on his involvement this summer.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter around the Netflix release of his thriller Le Dernier Refuge, Leterrier said he loved the franchise and hoped it could be finished in the best possible way. He said he was under contract, but that the production needed to align its budget with the realities of the box office.
Budget pressures after Fast X
Leterrier's caution follows the costly production of Fast X, which had an estimated budget of around 375 million euros but took in about 715 million dollars at the box office, far below the takings of the seventh and eighth films, which brought in 1.5 billion dollars and 1.2 billion dollars respectively. Balancing spectacle with cost has become a central challenge for a franchise that began as a modest action series before evolving into a big-budget production known for stunts such as launching a car off the back of a space shuttle.
Cast set to return, including Paul Walker
Vin Diesel is expected to be joined again by Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster, along with longtime cast members Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris. The film is also expected to mark the return of several familiar faces, including Paul Walker, who died on November 30, 2013, at the age of 40, during production of the seventh film.
Walker was replaced during filming by his brothers, Caleb and Cody, with his face digitally added in post-production for an emotional final scene. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last week, Cody Walker said the character of Brian O'Conner is not dead and revealed that he is expected to appear in Fast Forever through the use of artificial intelligence, despite his brother's absence. According to Cody Walker, the project has the blessing of Meadow Walker.
The approach recalls the recent, and controversial, digital recreation of actor Val Kilmer in a western that has not yet been released in France.
What's next for the franchise
Filming the eleventh film will not mark the end of the Fast and Furious franchise. Alongside a six-season animated series already available on Netflix, Vin Diesel and the streaming platform Peacock, a subsidiary of Universal, are working on a spin-off series set within the world of the films.
TMC is broadcasting Fast & Furious 9, directed by Justin Lin and starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and John Cena, at 9:25 p.m. on Monday.
