At the 2015 MTV Movie Awards, Vin Diesel prophesied that while “Furious 7 was for Paul [Walker]; 8 is from Paul.” While it’s a touching sentiment, we don’t know what that exactly means. What we do know is that F. Gary Gray beat out a shortlist of contenders jockeying to collaborate with the deceased Walker (metaphorically, we hope). Variety reports that Gray will officially helm Furious 8, with pre-production beginning later this month and filming set for next year. That should give Gray ample time to “work with the script,” by which we mean “acclimate himself to the scripted stunt work and CGI sequences that obfuscate the absence of a coherent plot.”
Series regulars Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are confirmed to return, with Kurt Russell and Jason Statham also expected to reprise their Furious 7 roles. No word on who will take Paul Walker’s place as the crew’s Diesel-to-human interpreter.
As the winner of the “all-you-can-hotwire-or-explode buffet,” Gray also had the honor of announcing his Furious 8 involvement along with the April 14, 2017 release date: