When The Fast and the Furious was first released over a decade ago, it was hard to imagine that a movie about street racing would spawn a successful franchise that’s still going strong six films in.  And yet, 2011’s Fast Five proved that the series still has plenty of juice left, with director Justin Lin crafting one of the most entertaining movies of the year that packed in just about every single castmember from the entire Fast & Furious franchise.

The action moves across the pond to Europe with this May’s Fast & Furious 6, also directed by Lin, and it appears that the inevitable seventh installment of the franchise might be coming much sooner than expected as star Vin Diesel recently suggested that filming on Fast & Furious 7 begins this summer.  Hit the jump for more.

Talk of a seventh Fast & Furious film began in the immediate aftermath of Fast Five’s ginormous success, as rumors swirled that Lin might be filming two sequels back-to-back.  Dwayne Johnson previously revealed that the crew had hatched a story idea that was too large to contain in just one film, and while Lin opted to film Fast & Furious 6 separately, Fast 7 has never been too far away.

A recent spoilery rumor appears to have revealed how the sixth and seventh films are connected (do not click that link if you don’t want to know the ending to Fast & Furious 6), and now Diesel claims that production on Fast & Furious 7 could begin imminently on his Facebook (via /Film):

There was an early screening in LA this week of Fast 6. The crowd reaction was surreal... and their demand for the continuation was powerful...

It's remarkable to think I first embodied this character in 1999... and the evolution continues.

P.s. Filming begins this summer in LA, where it all started... talk about a studio in sync with the audience...

That’s a very quick turnaround from 6 to 7, but it’s not an impossible notion given that Lin and Co. started developing Fast & Furious 7 at the same time as Fast & Furious 6.  There’s no word on who will be directing the next pic, but in order for things to move this quickly one assumes that Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan will be returning.  Dwayne Johnson recently said that a spinoff film for his Hobbs character might be coming in between Fast 6 and Fast 7, but if Diesel is to be believed then the Hobbs movie may be coming a bit further down the line.  Johnson is currently preparing to star in Brett Ratner’s Hercules, but production on that film doesn’t begin until November so he would seemingly have time to fit Fast & Furious 7 in before he reports to the Hercules set. 

There’s been no official word from Universal concerning a greenlight for Fast & Furious 7, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard something sooner rather than later.  The heist-centered Fast & Furious 6 is poised to be one of the biggest films of the summer, and the studio is likely itching to keep this franchise going in a timely manner.