With Furious 7 hitting theaters April 10, Universal has announced that they expect to release three more Fast & Furious films despite the loss of star actor Paul Walker.

Furious 7’s exciting first trailer was released just last weekend, and it focused heavily on actor Paul Walker, who passed away just one year ago due to a fatal car accident where he was a passenger.

Article Continues Below

As a fan of the original film, which hit theaters back in 2001, Paul Walker was the star of these films despite Vin Diesel becoming a big star in his own right. So it’s a bit surprising to hear that the studio plans on making at least three more Fast & Furious movies. In a recent interview with THR, Universal said (via Collider):

“We think there’s at least three more. Paul is, and always will be, an integral part of the story. But there are many other great characters, and it’s also an opportunity to introduce new characters. I think it’s still a growing franchise. We’ll see what happens with Furious 7, obviously, but our box office has grown over the past three or four films and internationally, in particular. So we think that there’s more to mine there. But we’re of course very mindful about fatigue.”

We do think that they’ve handled Walker’s death very well considering the film involves car crashes and dangerous driving, and we know that they do have a lot invested in this franchise. They also involve a lot of other actors, who rely on their success as well, so it’s understandable that they plan to continue making them.

From the first trailer it looked like the Fast and Furious crew will be headed around the globe, being joined by some new villains and some old friends. Obviously there has been a lot of talk about how the director planned on including Paul Walker’s death in the film, and whether his character would die in the film or be written out. Watch it below:

There were reports that the film’s screenwriter, Chris Morgan, decided to make Walker’s character exit more of a retirement during Furious 7, which would prevent them from having to kill off his character. We imagine it was incredibly difficult for everyone involved due to Walker’s tragic car accident, but we look forward to seeing Furious 7 when the film hits theaters April 10, 2015.

James Wan directed the film which also stars Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Elsa Pataky and Lucas Black. They’ll be joined by international action stars new to the franchise including Jason Statham, Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey, Nathalie Emmanuel and Kurt Russell.