While Vin Diesel has been hyping up an imminent start for what’s supposed to be the final movie in The Fast Saga, a bombshell new report from The Wall Street Journal is casting serious doubt over whether that movie is ever going to be made. Indeed, it’s been over two years since Fast X: Part I, and the follow-up seems nowhere near a greenlight. This, despite Diesel recently saying at FuelFest that the movie is pretty much ready to go:
“The studio said to me, ‘Vin, can we please have the finale of Fast & Furious in April 2027?’ I said under three conditions: The first is to bring the franchise back to L.A. The second thing was to return to the car culture — to the street racing! You wanna know what the third thing was? The third thing was reuniting Dom and Brian O’Conner. That is what you’re gonna get in the finale! Love you!”
According to the report, it all comes down to how much the movies are costing and their shrinking audience. Fast Xreportedly cost $340 million and made $705 million. While that’s still a massive number (only four movies — Ne Zha 2, Lilo & Stitch, A Minecraft Movie, and Jurassic World: Rebirth — made that much this year), profits were minimal. In fact, when all was said and done, the studio may have actually lost money.
While they’re still keen to produce another movie, Universal reportedly wants the budget reduced to around $200 million, meaning it would cost about $140 million less than the last one.
The report states that a script for Fast X: Part 2 does exist, but the budget for the movie hit the wall at $250 million, which is too rich for the studio’s blood. Unfortunately, one thing they might do to cut costs is either reduce screen time for some core cast members or simply not have them back at all.
Let’s not forget that the last movie ended with Diesel’s Dom Toretto in mortal danger and also teased the return of Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs. Will a sequel be able to afford both Diesel and The Rock — not to mention Jason Statham (whose star has been steadily rising) and Jason Momoa (the star of one of the year’s biggest movies, A Minecraft Movie)? And then there’s the fact that Diesel wants the late Paul Walker’s Brian to appear in the film, which would require advanced AI and CGI — and that won’t be cheap.
Perhaps The Fast Saga — at least with the original cast involved — has finally reached the finish line.
Do you care about getting a Fast X: Part 2? Let us know in the comments.
