While Furious 7 marked a fittingly emotional entry in the Fast & Furious franchise, the series’ next installment looks to be taking the cake for the biggest installment yet. On Friday, an official production video gave us a look at filming that was taking place in Iceland, promising a snowbound set piece involving a slew of vehicles. And today, director F. Gary Gray has shared an even closer look at said set piece as well as an absolutely massive blue screen set, which stands as the biggest blue screen in Fast & Furious history.

The to-be-CG-enhanced environment looks to wrap around the entire set, as it appears that the outdoor landscape of Iceland may have been a bit too much for the actual character confrontations and dialogue with Gray moving that portion of the set piece onto this here stage. We also get semi-confirmation that Game of Thrones actor Kristofer Hivju is playing a bad guy alongside the film’s main villain, portrayed by Charlize Theron.

Gray is clearly getting a huge budget to play with here, and it’s no surprise why. Not only is Gray himself coming off Universal’s critical and commercial hit Straight Outta Compton, but the franchise itself hit a box office highpoint with Furious 7, which grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the sixth highest grossing movie of all time. Clearly Universal is operating under the “go big or go home” conceit for this next installment, and I’m curious to see what Gray has in store for audience in terms of set pieces. At least we know there’ll be unique geography.


Check out the videos and photos below via Gray’s Instagram. The film also stars Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Dwayne Johnson, Scott Eastwood, and Nathalie EmmanuelFast and Furious 8 opens in theaters everywhere on April 14, 2017.


Testing bad guy toys! #fireinthehole #heavymetal #donttrythisathome #f8 @fastandfuriousmovie #behindthescenes A video posted by F Gary Gray (@fgarygray) on

#Iceland action. #f8 @fastandfuriousmovie #heavymetal Fastest Ice #charger ever made. #musclecar A photo posted by F Gary Gray (@fgarygray) on

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