In what is probably the most obvious piece of a news to come out this year (so far), Universal has decided that yes, as most of us surmised, in order to continue with Fast & Furious 7 they need a viable workaround for the late Paul Walker’s Brian O’Connor, without hitting too close to Walker’s actual death as a result of a high-speed sports car crash. Hard to do in a Fast & Furious movie.
Surprise, surprise, that solution has now been officially settled upon: Brian O’Connor will get a happier ending than Paul Walker did.
THR reports that F&F7 director James Wan and writer Chris Morgan are tweaking the script in a way that they can use what footage of Walker they already shot (about half the film), while also creating a send off for Walker’s character Brian that would still allow the franchise to continue. The film has currently been pushed back to April 10, 2015 to allow the cast time to grieve and the necessary changes to be made.
I said the following in the immediate aftermath of Walker’s passing, when we were all wondering what was going to happen with the franchise: