Vin Diesel, a man of the people, and a man of sequels. On his social media accounts this weekend, Diesel started getting fans revved up for two sequels — one expected, one unexpected — that he will be starting in coming up. In the first, he put a poster up for Fast and Furious 8, which confirms its New York City locale. Diesel recently called Fast 8 the start of “the last trilogy” (even though the franchise will have 10 movies … don’t think on it too hard).
Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray was also confirmed to be directing the movie recently, and spoke to our own Steve Weintraub about how meeting Diesel and going over their vision for the new film was “all love. Definitely all love,” and also teased that,
“We’re really pushing to make sure the audience feels like it’s not more of the same. They feel like it’s fresh, they feel like the characters they’ve come to know and love are there, but this is gonna be different, and that’s probably the most I can give you right now. It’s kind of top secret.”
Diesel also posted two images relating to xXX: The Return of Xander Cage, both of which feature a longboard and his comments, “Training for Xander is so much fun... can't wait to film this long board sequence that the director showed me. Have a great weekend all...”
Training for Xander is so much fun... can't wait to film this long board sequence that the director showed me.Have a great weekend all... Posted by Vin Diesel on Friday, 15 January 2016
Xander zone... A photo posted by Vin Diesel (@vindiesel) on
Though the xXx sequel State of the Union was not a hit (Diesel notably did not star in it, as the movie was handed over to Ice Cube), Diesel clearly still maintains a passion for the project. We recently found out that the movie will be directed by D.J. Caruso, and as these photos confirm, filming is already gearing up. The movie will also star Samuel L. Jackson, reprising his role as Agent Augustus Eugene Gibbons, as well as Bollywood star Deepika Padukone (Chennai Express), Nina Dobrev (Vampire Diaries), and Ruby Rose (Orange Is the New Black). Padukone will play a “huntress” who has a history with Cage; Dobrev will play a “witty and sarcastic techie;” and Rose will be a sniper.
We’ll keep you updated on both franchises as we know more. For now, Fast and Furious 8 is set to open in theaters on April 14, 2017
