It seems hard to believe that the late Paul Walker almost quit the Fast and Furious franchise, but the actor seriously considered it before jumping on the fourth installment since he thought that the audiences were completely over the elaborate car speed chase scenes.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times back in 2011, right after Fast 5 was released, he shared how he almost turned his back on the franchise.
"I thought it was stale. They were talking about my involvement with the fourth one and I was like, 'Are you kidding me? Really?'" he said. "Obviously, we made the first one that catered to pop culture and a youth-driven audience. But trends shift overnight with that audience. Nine years later, I really questioned if there was even an audience anymore."
If only Walker was still alive today, he would see just how far the franchise has gone, and be happy knowing just how important their characters are to the audiences.
Furious 7 opened at the box office with unprecedented numbers, and because of its success, people are now talking about the next step - the trilogy that will start with Fast and Furious 8.
However, Walker was not wrong to consider that the franchise has already gotten "stale" as the 2003 sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, was not as successful as the original. The third movie, Tokyo Drift, jumped over the story's timeline and Walker was not even in the movie.
But producers had a vision for the franchise, and how they transformed the fourth installment completely wowed fans and new audiences alike. They banked in on their strengths more, which are fast cars, crazy action scenes, and a cast with undeniable chemistry. And after that, the future installments just made sense and all the cast involved did not question whether or not audiences still want to watch the movies.
As for Fast and Furious 8, Hollywood bigwig Helen Mirren apparently wants in, but it seems like producers are more keen on bringing back the old cast, such as Eva Mendes' Agent Fuentes, who had a thing for Walker's character Brian. A lot of people question how the franchise will survive without Walker, but given the producers' ability to turn things around when everything looks down, there is no doubt that the franchise's future still looks bright.
