Vin Diesel says Paul Walker character will be back for next Fast and Furious

The actor has said this week that re-uniting his character Dom Toretto with Walker’s Brian O’Conner was a condition for agreeing to get the band back together.

Walker died aged 40 in 2013 and made his last film appearance in 2015’s Furious 7, where his uncompleted scenes were pieced together with CGI using his brothers as body doubles.

But Diesel has seemingly committed to taking digital efforts to the extremity of some of the stunts in the film if producers are to use tech wizardry to bring Walker back for a full-length feature.

Using digital methods to bring back old characters is something Star Wars has completed in its sequel trilogy, while films such as The Irishman and Gemini Man have seen Rober De Niro and Will Smith, respectively, play younger versions of themselves.

However, using the method for Walker would require a body and voice actor to fill in for him and make the narrative work. It would also be an emotionally confusing prospect for fans with Toretto and O’Conner saying goodbye in 2015 with Wiz Khalifa’s theme song See You Again seeming to provide a heartfelt send off to Walker.

But fans will also know that the improbable and impossibly far-fetched are part and parcel for the Fast and Furious films, with Michelle Rodrigez’s character Letty Ortiz having seemingly been brought back from the dead as well.

Here is what else we know about Fast and Furious 11.

It has a April 2027 release date

Diesel told FuelFest in California that Universal had wanted the “finale” to the long-running series, which began in 2001, to open in April 2027.

Fast X in 2023 ended on a cliffhanger and did not make a significant profit, putting the characters and the series itself in jeopardy.

Diesel’s announcement shows that there is capital to give the series one more outing, and this has been slated to be called Fast X Part 2.

There has also been a spin off film called Hobbs and Shaw with another, Hobbs and Reyes, apparently in the works at one point - although announcements on this have gone quiet.

No cast announcements

Beyond involving Toretto and O’Conner, fans have not been told who could be back or could be joining the series. Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson are both left for dead at the end of Fast X, and Toreto is last seen at the bottom of a dam which is about to explode.

It will be in LA and have street racing

To quote Diesel at the car show: “The studio said to me, ‘Vin, can we please have the finale of Fast and Furious [in] April 2027?’ I said, ‘Under three conditions.’ First is to bring the franchise back to LA! The second thing was to return to the car culture, to the street racing! The third thing was reuniting Dom and Brian O’Conner.”

Moving the series back from Europe to LA is probably the least of the challenges and long time fans will be happy to hear that the street racing elements will be back.

No trailer or artwork has been released.