Strap on your racing harnesses: Fast and the Furious 8 will be hitting cinemas in less than 24 months and Jason Statham will be making a return.
Statham, who played a starring role in Fast and the Furious 7, had a slip of the tongue (perhaps intentionally?) and revealed that he will form part of the eighth instalment. At the close of Fast and the Furious 7, Statham’s character, Deckard Shaw, was locked up behind some real, proper bars. Conveniently, he was still alive.
“We’re already talking about doing another one, part eight,” Statham told Access Hollywood. “I’m a newcomer—I just got invited to the party in this last one, so it’s nice to know I’m going to be doing another.”
It was already public knowledge that an eighth version of the series will be made after Vin Diesel, one of the big stars of the hugely popular franchise, hinted that a new movie was coming. What is known on the new movie is that it will take place in New York. Major names linked to the new movie include Kurt Russel, who played the secret agent in Fast 7, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Eva Mendes, and Lucas Black.
It is rumoured that up to three more movies were possible after Fast 7, including this eighth version, and given the massive sale-success of the series, they would be silly not to continue with more. In its first three weeks Fast and the Furious 7 racked up more than $1 billion.
The release date for Fast and the Furious 8 is set for April 2017