6 Things That Fast & Furious 8 Should Keep In Mind

There are few contemporary franchises with the (surprising) longevity of the Fast and Furious franchise. The most recent instalment, Furious 7, seemed to put a pretty strong capper on the whole narrative, tying up many loose ends from other films. Letty regained her memory, Dom punched out his adversary, and Brian drove off into the sunset. The family was reunited, but ended on a melancholy note as Dom and Brian finally, inevitably, part ways. With Fast & Furious 8 announced already, one does wonder where the franchise can go from here. Join us as we take a look at several things that the next outing in this high-octane series will have to keep in mind should it hope to be as successful as its predecessors have been. The Loss of Brian Part of the challenge in Fast & Furious 8 is the quiet removal of Paul Walker’s character Brian. Furious 7 paid a warm and loving tribute to the deceased Walker and his place in the franchise, allowing Brian to drive off from Dom and back to his wife and son. We can hope that Fast & Furious 8 will not go the easy route and eliminate Brian off-screen, thus forcing Dom and Co. back into the running to avenge his death. That would undermine the good work Furious 7 did in treating Walker’s death with gentleness and respect. But no matter what, Walker’s absence will have to be dealt with, as Brian was such a major facet of the franchise. There is already a rumor circulating that Walker’s brother Cody – who did some stand-in work for those parts of Furious 7 that Walker was unable complete – will be coming on board Fast & Furious 8, though whether he’ll actually be playing Brian is unclear. It’s perfectly possible to recast Brian, though that runs into the same feeling of hokiness that Furious 7 worked so hard to avoid. But what about bringing on the other Walker as a new straight-shooter – perhaps a brother or family member that Brian never spoke about – to cause a bit of an upheaval in the Toretto family? That would at least avoid the inevitable comparisons and questions of respect for Walker’s death. The Racing As awesome as it was, one of the major elements missing from Furious 7 was one of the stronger components of earlier entries: street-racing. Lest we forget that Dom and his gang are racers, first and foremost, and while I am always up for seeing cars parachuting onto mountain roads, and Dwayne Johnson downing helicopters with massive machine guns, I would love for a few scenes of proper street races once again. There was a hint of it with Letty’s racing sequence, but it did not have the same vitality of those early, hell-bent races that established the franchise in the first place. It would be nice for the Toretto clan to return to the streets, if only for a single, adrenaline fueled race. The Law Now that Dom and Co. have worked for the government once, there’s a strong possibility it’ll happen again. With Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody still running around – and being a pretty cool badass himself – perhaps he shall call on the Toretto clan for another job. Vin Diesel has already teased the return of Russell for the next part of the franchise, though (naturally) has not said what kind of part he’ll play. The other side of law and order is Dwayne Johnson’s Special Agent Hobbs. Hobbs didn’t feature as a major player in Furious 7, although he did have several spectacular moments. He sat out most of the film, though, and it would be good to put him front and center once again. I personally would pump for Hobbs being in danger, perhaps even considered a traitor, and for Dom and the gang to have to get him out of it. It would give some more opportunity for Vin Diesel and the Rock to flex their muscles, and further build on the relationships between the characters as a “family” that looks after their own. Besides, we could have a comeback of Hobbs’s adorable daughter. Finally, we have to address the rumor that Eva Mendes’s character Monica Fuentes, a U.S. Customs agent, will be returning for the next installment. Monica appeared briefly in Fast Five, but her major film was the early sequel 2 Fast, 2 Furious. It’d be quite easy to write her back in, especially as the Toretto family now has more (somewhat tenuous) connections to law enforcement, and it would be nice to have another badass woman in the mix. The Family As we are reminded at least once or twice a film, the Fast and Furious franchise is all about family. The Toretto clan continues to expand, but there are a few who have not been featured in films for some time. With the absence of Brian, there might be a shift in focus on the tribulations of some of our other favorites, like Tyrese Gibson’s Roman or Ludacris’s inspired hacker Tej. Lucas Black, who featured in Tokyo Drift and very briefly in Furious 7, has already signed on to return to the franchise, which means that we could see more of his “cowboy” Sean Boswell and the interaction between him and his adoptive family. With the addition of brilliant hacker Mia, who seems to have joined the team at the end of Furious 7, there are all kinds of combinations we could have that don’t have to focus on the previously central characters of Dom and Brian. Not that Dom is going to go anywhere, of course. He’s the patriarch of this makeshift family, though his character trajectory might not have much further to go. Given that Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) has her memory back, the next logical step for the couple would be a child – and can you imagine Dom as a daddy? I certainly can. The Villains The franchise has been building quite a bevy of villains that really don’t like the Toretto family, many of whom are still alive after their run-ins with Dom and his gang. Lest we forget, Deckard and Owen Shaw (Jason Statham and Luke Evans) are still out there, one in prison and the other in a coma. This means that it’s the easiest thing in the world to bring one or both of them back for the next installment. They were some of the best villains the franchise has yet offered, but there are others too: there’s the “yakuza” of Tokyo, and the potential villainy of Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody to contend with as well. While too many villains will spoil the broth, uniting some of the previous villains for yet another film could produce some unique sparks. Of course, this franchise has succeeded in getting some pretty badass actors to play their villains, and there’s always a chance of adding someone else to the roster. Mel Gibson hasn’t been doing much recently… Locations Fast and Furious has become known for its locations: drifting around Tokyo, jumping buildings in Abu Dhabi, destroying the streets of L.A. Recent reports seem to situate the Fast & Furious 8 in New York, which will undoubtedly present some unique challenges for the street racers. I would also advocate for sending our heroes to Rome for a little while. With the intense car culture of Italy, racing around the streets of Roma seems like a perfect opportunity for a film franchise centered around souped-up machines. We really need to pit some American muscle cars against sleek Italian supercars, and rip up some Roman streets while we’re at it.