Kicking up the dust at Universal’s conference at CinemaCon was the studio’s widely successful Fast & Furious franchise. Amid news of other sequels and continuations, Vin Diesel addressed the audience along with his street racing co-stars to confirm the release date for Fast & Furious 7, which he revealed to be July 11th, 2014.
News of a seventh film was always on the cards for the resilient series, however, given that the franchise recently changed gears with James Wan replacing Justin Lin in the directing chair, it seems that the studio are hoping for a hasty turnaround following this year’s Fast & Furious 6. A point to note, too, is that the release date for the seventh movie will see it go toe to toe with X-Men: Days of Future Past, which will be released the following week.
Of course, with production still to begin on Fast & Furious 7 – though it is expected to shoot this summer – we have no information regarding plot at this point in time. In saying that, we can readily predict that series stalwarts’ Paul Walker and Vin Diesel – who also serves as a producer on the films – to return to the starting grid for Wan’s first instalment in the Fast franchise.
During his talk, Diesel – A.K.A. Dominic Toretto – also said that there may be room for “two or three more movies down the road.” Whatever happened to living your life a quarter mile at a time, eh?
No doubt, Fast & Furious is Universal’s neon-clad cash cow – what with Fast Five grossing $626 million worldwide – so it’s unsurprising to learn of their eagerness to prolong the franchise. Although, with the sixth film coming out this May and Fast & Furious 7 slated for release a mere 14 months afterwards, one can’t help but wonder if the series is sliding towards overkill. Hell, with the recent onslaught of sequels from the studio, it seems Universal may have caught a bad case of sequelitis.
Do you think the franchise has the mileage for ‘another few films’ following Fast & Furious 7? Or do you think that the box office behemoth is running on fumes? Let us know in the comments below!