Calling his late castmate Paul Walker “a terrific guy,” Kurt Russell says he’s not sure what will happen with his role in the latest “Fast & Furious” movie. Walker played Brian O'Conner in the “Fast & Furious” series and was in the middle of filming “Fast & Furious 7” before he died on November 30, 2013 in a car crash.
Russell joined the seventh film in the franchise and plays a father figure to Vin Diesel’s character Dominic Toretto and O'Conner. The 62-year-old actor said he had one day left of filming when Walker died in a car crash outside Los Angeles last November.
They’re having to rewrite, they’re having to do whatever they’re having to do to deal with the situation. Listen, it’s catastrophic,” Russell said in an interview at the Sundance Film Festival, where he’s promoting a documentary about his father’s minor-league baseball team, “The Battered Bastards of Baseball.”.
“It’s the worst thing that could happen to a movie, but it’s not as bad as what happened to Paul,” Russell said. “So everything is in perspective. He was a terrific guy. And life is full of curveballs.”
The latest film in the fast-car franchise, directed by James Wan, is now set for release in April 2015. Russell expects to return to set sometime this year.
Russell said of his character, whom he didn’t name: “Whether or not this guy dies off in the movie, we don’t know, and that may have changed now significantly, too.”
Russell is one of several big names joining the franchise for the latest installment. Jason Statham is the main bad guy, playing Ian Shaw’s brother Owen.
Toretto and his crew killed Ian in “Fast & Furious 6.” However, Gisele (Gal Gadot) died during the fighting action. Also, it was later revealed that Owen killed Han (Sung Kang) during the intense race scene in Tokyo in “Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.”
Owen then calls Toretto and tells him that he’s seeking revenge for his brother’s death.
Many of the recurring characters in the series, including Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), Mia (Jordana Brewster), and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) are going to return for FF7.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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