With Vin Diesel recently teasing the first photo from the set of Fast and Furious 7, there’s a good chance that more casting news will be coming in the next few days.
Diesel and Paul Walker will of course be front and centre once more, reprising their leading roles for the anticipated sequel.
And now Deadline reports that Lucas Black will be returning to the franchise once more, and not only will he star in Fast and Furious 7, but his deal will see him become a series regular for at least the next three instalments, up to Fast and Furious 9 and beyond.
Black starred opposite Sung Kang as the joint lead in the franchise’s third instalment, 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Without wanting to go into too many details in case of spoilers, those who have seen Fast and Furious 6 and the previous instalments will of course understand why it makes sense to bring Black back into the fold now, and it’s clearly going to be an exciting time in the years to come.
The sixth instalment has been a huge success for Universal this year, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of the year with just shy of $790m. around the world, sitting only behind Iron Man 3 and Despicable Me 2.
Needless to say, there’s clearly a lot of love for the series, especially with the new direction it has been moving in since Fast & Furious re-launched the franchise in 2009 with Diesel and Walker coming back to the leads.
What will be interesting to see is the new direction that Fast and Furious 7 will move in, with a different director on board.
Justin Lin has helmed the last four instalments, from Tokyo Drift right up to this year’s blockbuster success. But with Universal setting a Summer 2014 release date for the next instalment, Lin decided to pass on returning to the chair, saying that he needed to focus on post-production on 6 rather than going into pre-production on 7.
James Wan, who has a slew of highly successful horror movies under his belt, most recently with The Conjuring and Insidious: Chapter 2, has come on board in his place, and it should be a lot of fun to see where he takes things next, particularly with Black now officially on board for the next three instalments.
Wan will be directing from a script penned by the franchise’s go-to writer now, Chris Morgan.
And starring alongside Diesel and Walker will be Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, and Tyrese Gibson, with Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, and now Black set to join them.
Fast and Furious 7 will be hitting on July 11th, 2014, and is all but guaranteed to be yet another huge hit for the studio next summer.
