It's no secret that the ending for Furious 7 had to be rewritten in light of Paul Walker's death, and the latest installment of the car speed chase franchise did not disappoint fans who were eager to remember the American actor and philanthropist.
Towards the end of the movie, there was a touching tribute to Walker that reduced fans to tears. Clips of the actor throughout the Fast and Furious franchise were shown while Wiz Khalifa's song "See You Again" was playing in the background.
According to Director James Wan, he and his crew decided to use those scenes to give Walker a proper send-off. In an interview with Collider, Wan said that he was happy that the studio gave them free rein on how to commemorate their brother Walker, given that they had different plans for the franchise.
"The original ending of Furious 7 was setting up, you know, the bigger world of where the Fast and Furious franchise could go into. And that's obviously very smart of them to think so. But when the tragedy happened, all of that became irrelevant. So it did not matter anymore, all of that stuff. And to the studio's credit, they did not push for that," he said.
Wan added that the studio recognized the importance of making a movie tribute to Walker, so he gives them "a lot of credit for being bigger than that and going along with this ending that is the right ending to go with."
The director said he is very relieved and happy with the positive response the movie has been getting. There are a few who considers the movie "meh," but Wan said that the whole crew feels far from indifferent since the movie was a monumental challenge for them, and he hopes the audience knows just how difficult creating the movie was.
It was also very personal ordeal, Wan said, because they were all heartbroken over Walker's death. When he passed away, Wan said that they all had to pick up the pieces and go back on set, and it was his job as director to put on a brave face and rally the whole cast and crew. In the end, they decided to do their best to make the movie a loving memory of Walker.
"It became very apparent to all of us that we needed to finish this movie to honor Paul's legacy and to basically honor his memories, and moving forward that became our number one goal. Like nothing else mattered, it was about making this movie for Paul," he said.
