Vin announces a start date
Fast X was released in 2023 and ended on a cliffhanger as part one of a two-parter. The next chapter, Fast Forever, has seemingly been going through many stalls and the film has barely been able to hit the gas at the greenlight. Vin Diesel would release a video earlier this summer that gave the impression that they were filming, but it turned out to be false. Recently, Diesel said that they should commence in December, saying, “We start shooting in December, if I can make good on the request from the studio. I’m in a good place, though. I had to go through four sets of writers, four years of development, to get to something that I felt would be worthy of a finale. And when I read the script a couple of weeks ago, [I cried].”
Diesel Directing?
French action director Louis Leterrier stepped in to direct Fast X when franchise director Justin Lin had walked away at the start of production. Leterrier is contracted to direct Fast Forever, but during the promotion of his film The Last House, he revealed that he hadn’t yet seen a script. He also mentioned that he kept busy with other projects while waiting for Fast Forever to start. However, yesterday, Vin Diesel posted a cryptic message on his Instagram. He posted a picture of the signature Dominic Toretto Dodge Charger with the caption, “Director… Hmmm…”
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What this truly means is still unclear, but could Vin be saying that he himself will be directing Fast Forever? Diesel does have prior directing experience back in his indie days with his short film Multi-Facial and his feature Strays. He also technically directed for the Fast franchise in the past with the short film, Los Bandoleros, which served as a precursor to the fourth film, Fast & Furious.
What’s happening with Fast Forever?
So, if the franchise is a billion-dollar property for Universal, why is this sequel having so much trouble getting started? According to Fast X co-star Alan Ritchson, the budget is too much for the studio, “I know a lot, we have conversations all the time, I’m a big part of those conversations,” Ritchon said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “There’s just a lot of obstacles. It’s expensive to make— it’s too expensive; it doesn’t make a ton of sense. There’s a more efficient way to shoot those shows. And so there has to be a way to show restraint, while also honoring the fact that this world has expanded to something humongous. We are at the crossroads of something very hard to figure out, and everybody’s figuring it out.“
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