Paul Walker’s family want the actor’s character back in the Fast & Furious franchise.
The American actor died in a car accident in 2013 when he was just 40 years old, after he’d become a staple part of the Fast & Furious movies.
A documentary about Paul’s life, I Am Paul Walker, has recently been released, and during its promotion, the actor’s brothers revealed they think Paul should be back in the car-filled action movies.
Paul’s character, Brian, is still alive in the franchise, though he’s no longer a central character.
Caleb Walker, one of Paul’s brothers, spoke to Associated Press about his wishes to see Brian back in the story:
I just hope we get to — I don’t know — have a little cameo and bring Paul back to save the day and I get to help create that again. That’s my dream and I hope we get to do that in one of the future movies.
I think there could potentially be a way to do it. But it would take a lot of thought and it’d have to be tasteful. It would have to be tasteful.
He was the real deal, the real car guy. And in his absence, I — you know — I think it’s lost its way in a big way.
Paul’s brothers helped to complete Brian’s appearance in Furious 7. They stepped in to complete scenes Paul had not yet shot, prior to his death.
The men performed Paul’s scenes, and their brother’s face was superimposed over them. However, neither Caleb nor Cody Walker have watched the film since its premiere in 2015.
Caleb explained:
It’s kind of creepy sometimes when you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s me.’ It doesn’t feel right.
I think one day, when our kids are little older and we are able to share that experience with them and be like, ‘Hey look, this is your uncle Paul. He was the greatest guy in the world and here we are being able to portray him and finish up this movie for him.’
That’s when I think it will really hit that I think it was really worth it and special and all that. But in the meantime, it’s still a little conflicted.
The brothers have Fast & Furious star Vin Diesel’s support in Paul’s character coming back to the films.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2017, Caleb said:
I had a phone call with Vin for about an hour and we discussed this a while back. He wanted our blessings. Diesel asked if it would be acceptable to maybe bring Paul’s character back, to really kind of let his fans know he’s still out there.
The next film in the franchise is set to be a spin-off featuring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, with the ninth Fast & Furious expected to be released in 2020.
Brian’s character was referred to in the most recent film, suggesting Universal are making sure the audience remember the character, but whether he’ll make a return to the screen is something we’ll have to wait to find out.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.