Vin Diesel announced that he promised Universal a final trilogy of Fast & Furious films in a Facebook post published Friday morning.
“Universal has been so good to me and so trusting of the vision,” Diesel said. “I promised the studio I would deliver one last Trilogy to end the saga.”
While an eighth film is already set for 2017, this isn’t the first time we’re hearing about more installments. Universal Chairman, Donna Langley, said she believes “there’s at least three more” after Furious 7 in a discussion with The Hollywood Reporter in November 2014.
Also in the post, Diesel mentioned that, “NO ONE has been offered to helm Fast 8 yet… let alone seen a script.” This comes on the heels of a Hollywood Reporter article which claimed that Furious 7 director James Wan was offered “life-altering money” to direct another film, but the production “actually compromised Wan’s health.” THR’s sources also said that Diesel was difficult during production as the franchise star/producer supposedly brought filmmakers together for “repeated late-night script sessions” and held up production due to being picky about some of the action scenes.
“My producing partner Neal [Moritz] would love for me to just sign off on a director, but this is too special a franchise,” said Diesel in his Friday Facebook post. He continues, “these matters have to be very carefully handled… I will announce the directors on my next post.”
Fast 8 is scheduled for April 14, 2017.
For more content from yours truly, check out my blog and follow me on Twitter.