On November 30, 2013, fans of cinema and the saga Fast and Furious learn some sad news: Chris Walker died in a car accident. This takes place during the filming of the seventh opus, which forces the production to find a new way to make Agent O’Connor appear in the sequel to the film.
The saga must continue
The seventh episode of the saga was to be the start of a new trilogy. How then to continue the series when one of the main characters tragically disappears during the project? It will take four months for the production team to finally find an answer. After which, filming finally resumed thanks to Paul’s brothers who took over the role of the actor, some digital retouching and some script changes.
But what next? After Fast and Furious 7two sequels eventually saw the light of day, but none of them featured Brian O’Connor in their cast of characters. Several tributes have been paid to the actor who played him. However, the producers of the saga preferred to remove it from the series with a script twist.
CGI to bring Brian o’Connor back
Despite the death of his actor, however, it was considered to bring back Brian O’Connor in Fast and Furious 8. With the time that has passed between the seventh episode and this sequel, the processes linked to the CGI had received many improvements, which would have made it possible to bring the character back to computer graphics in a realistic way.
In an interview with ScreenRantF Gary Gray, film director Fast and Furious 8confessed wanting to bring Brian O’Connor back into the saga. He explains that his possible return has been the subject of many internal discussions:
We’ve had hundreds of discussions about the best way to honor Paul Walker. We could recreate him in computer graphics and bring his character back. We could also leave him aside and pretend that he was no longer part of this milieu. We asked ourselves these questions and the choice we finally made is the one that best respects his heritage. It seems to me that his family really liked the way we treated his character in Fast and Furious 8.
A possible appearance in future films?
After nine canonical episodes and several spin-offs, the saga Fast and Furious will end its story with a tenth film in two parts. It seems quite likely that Brian O’Connor will make another appearance in one of these two episodes that will close the series.
In any case, Paul Walker’s family seem extremely supportive of the fact to offer a final appearance by Brian O’Connor in these movies. The two brothers who have already worked on Fast and Furious 7 say to themselves ready to resume their role as understudy. One of them has publicly stated:
I’m crossing my fingers that we’re offered a kind of Paul cameo where he will have to save everyone. I am ready to help them for that. It’s my dream and I hope it can be done in a future film.
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