Fast X marks the beginning of the end of the Fast saga. While the movie will not be the final chapter, the cast and crew have been open that it marks part of the finale
– and after 22 years on our screens, everyone is preparing to say farewell.
"That’s the beauty of arriving near the end of this franchise: I don’t have to go, 'Oh, well, these characters will live forever,'" director Louis Leterrier Total Film magazine in the new issue, which features the movie on the cover. "No. They might not, because it’s the end. Only in westerns do cowboys gallop out into the sunset. This is definitely different. It allowed me some freedom to raise the stakes even more than they’ve been raised before."
And while Leterrier has ruled out a long-foreshadowed return appearance for Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner outside of the film’s flashback footage from Fast Five, star Vin Diesel isn’t dismissing the idea of an on-screen reunion through digital doubles or similar face-replacement tech used on Fast 7 for the final Fast installment.
"That moment in 2013 when the world was struggling with his loss, the studio made a very bold and righteous and daring decision to keep Brian O’Conner alive," Diesel notes to Total Film. "I will give you this without spoiling anything: I couldn’t imagine this saga ending without truly saying goodbye to Brian O’Conner."
As the series races towards the finish line, Diesel is confident that what they have planned for that final, nitro-fuelled push will deliver on sky-high audience expectations, and we’re not just talking about flying cars. "I’ve spent a lot of time putting my ear to the ground, and getting a sense of what the true fans have desired, and what their feelings are, and also just a 50,000ft view of how a saga should end – with dignity and integrity. Everything has led us to this point."
"I will say that you only have to look at where we are in the world, where technology is flying so fast we don’t have a moment to consider the ramifications or the implications of how our future could be impacted by it, and imagine what the Toretto philosophy would be," he adds. "If you think of a car as representing freedom, the antithesis of that is AI – it’s driverless cars. Somewhere in there will lie the contrasting themes, the philosophies that will be at war in this finale."
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Fast X opens in cinemas on May 19. This is just a snippet of our huge cover feature on Fast X, including interviews with Jason Momoa and Brie Larson as well. For much more, grab a copy of the new issue of Total Film magazine when it hits shelves (and digital newsstands) this Thursday, March 30. Check out the covers below:
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