Does Anyone Really Want to See Paul Walker Again in ‘Fast & Furious’?

Vin Diesel, who is never one to shy away from making bold claims—we’re still waiting on Furious 7 to win best picture—provoked headlines on Saturday when he revealed why he said yes to making one last Fast & Furious film.

“The studio said to me, ‘Vin, can we please have the finale of Fast & Furious [in] April 2027?’” Diesel said at FuelFest in Pomona, California. “I said, ‘Under three conditions.’ The 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. That is what you’re going to get in the finale.”

That’s right: Diesel is promising to bring back Paul Walker’s beloved character, who was last seen driving off into the sunset in the concluding shot of 2015’s Furious 7. The franchise retired Brian, the billion-dollar series’s original antagonist, in the wake of Walker’s tragic 2013 death, the result of a car crash during a break from filming the seventh Fast installment.

In the aftermath of Walker’s passing, Furious 7’s cast and crew needed convincing to even complete the project. “The first thing all of us were struggling with was, ‘What the hell are we doing here? What’s Fast & Furious without Paul?’” Fast star Tyrese Gibson told me in 2021. “And are we going to come off as just a bunch of narcissists—deciding what Paul meant to the franchise, and saying, ‘We’re moving forward anyway?’”

But Walker’s family agreed that he would have wanted his Fast family to see the movie through. Walker’s younger brothers, Caleb and Cody, and actor John Brotherton all stepped in as doubles; with their help, and the revolutionary use of new visual effects techniques, Furious 7 was finished.

There’s no doubt that the loss of Walker generated extra interest in Furious 7, which grossed $1.5 billion worldwide—more than double what Fast 6 earned. At the time, it became the fourth highest-grossing movie in history. More importantly to Fast fans and those inside the franchise, it was the perfect swan song for both Paul Walker and his character.

The last scene of 7, scored to Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again,” finds Diesel’s Dom somberly paused at a stop sign, reflecting on the changes to come. Brian has decided to shift his focus from saving the world to being a father and husband. Then Brian pulls up next to him and asks, “You thought you could leave without saying goodbye?” In a narration that feels like Diesel talking to Walker, Dom reminisces about his and Brian’s bond: “I used to say I lived my life a quarter-mile at a time, and I think that’s why we were brothers, because you did too.” A montage of Brian moments plays as he and Dom drive side-by-side. Dom’s speech continues: “No matter where you are, whether it’s a quarter-mile away, or halfway across the world, you’ll always be with me, and you’ll always be my brother.” Then their cars veer off in opposite directions. We follow Brian down a long road. The screen cuts to white, and two final words appear: “For Paul.”

A number of fans would say that should have been the end of Fast. It was Brian who served as the entry point into this world, arriving in 2001’s The Fast and the Furious as an undercover cop whose eyes are suddenly opened up to a new, more intense way of living. Yet the franchise has persisted without Brian, merely mentioning him in passing in each subsequent film. The closest Fast has gotten to a Brian reappearance was when his car pulled into the Toretto driveway in the final shot of F9—though of course, we didn’t see Brian himself in the scene.

The film’s most recent entry, Fast X, was released in 2023. Billed as the first half of a grand, two-part finale, it earned $714 million—the lowest tally since the franchise’s sixth movie—on a $300 million budget.

From that, and from the long gap between that film and its conclusion, it seems clear that excitement about the franchise has waned. Fast 11’s originally announced release date of April 2025 has come and gone; at this point, there’s no sense that cameras are actually close to rolling on the film, despite Diesel’s unofficial declaration that it’s now coming in April 2027. There seems to be behind-the-scenes tension between Diesel and the studio as well; two months ago, the actor and producer tried to publicly pressure executives into getting things moving in an Instagram post that read, “Universal… Please tell the best fans in the world, when the next movie is coming out. Please…” Diesel later edited the post and changed his caption. (We’ve reached out to both Diesel and Universal for comment.)

With little talk of Fast 11 in the air, was Diesel’s declaration about the return of Brian less of a promise, and more of an attempt to spark some buzz? Either way, is there a chance that Brian’s return could actually happen? If so, it wouldn’t be the first time a late actor’s likeness has been used in a film years after their death: Think of Carrie Fisher in The Rise of Skywalker, Peter Cushing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Ian Hom in last year’s Alien: Romulus.

Sources inside the Fast franchise reveal that the idea of using CGI to bring back Walker’s character was previously discussed for 2021’s F9, before the team thought better of it. It’s worth noting, however, that Diesel’s big announcement came as he stood next to Walker’s brother Cody—presumably signifying that the Walker family would approve of such a controversial decision. It could also mean that Cody might once again play a role in filing in as Brian. (He and Caleb have previously shared their hope to do just that, but they have yet to reply to an inquiry about their current stance.)

So the face of the Fast franchise wants to make Paul Walker’s return a reality. Those who were closest to Walker seem to want that as well. But what about the rest of us?

Even as he took a backseat to Diesel and later franchise additions like Dwayne Johnson, Walker was long the soulful heart of Fast. And while the more recent films’ struggles could be pinned on shark-jumping trips to space or offscreen beefs within the family, the void left by Brian is the one thing that Fast truly hasn’t been able to overcome. Given this, and the 25 years of history that audiences have shared with Walker and Brian, it’s tempting to be drawn to the prospect of seeing that classic Brian smile once more, and watching him strap in alongside Dom as Fast drives to the finish line.

Yet against all odds, we were already gifted that very thing with the ending of Furious 7. And anyone who doesn’t want to let Brian rest can simply pull up that tear-inducing scene for the 157th time. If fans do want a Fast reunion—one that would actually build tension and anticipation for the franchise’s last ride, and recapture some of its missing energy—maybe Diesel and Johnson are the ones who should consider burying the hatchet and seeing each other again.