Fast & Furious Brings The Cavalry By Announcing Release Dates For Two More Sequels

Here's a shocker no one saw coming; after the most recent entry in the Fast & Furious franchise (Furious 7, released this past April) became one of the biggest films of all-time, Universal is expressing some interest in continuing the saga. An eighth feature (tentatively titled Fast 8) is already slated for an April 14, 2017 release, but late last night, the Fast & Furious Facebook page announced release dates for two additional sequels, taking the amount of Fast & Furious we'll see in our lifetimes to at least 10.


Here's the image they released confirming the various release dates;

Looks like they're sticking with the April release date that treated Furious 7 so well. It also looks like this upcoming eighth movie will kick off a new trilogy of sorts, which aligns nicely with my personal belief that Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7 make up their own individual saga of sorts. Like I said, no surprise to see that more Fast & Furious adventures are in our future, considering the massive box office and fanbase these films have. And really, why not have more of these features around? The three most recent installments really took thing to a new level quality wise, and the ever escalating nature of the bombastic spectacle is undeniably a lot of fun.

Something else that makes this franchise so endurable? Its emphasis on the connections between its lead characters. There's a reason sagas like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Star Wars saga and, of course, the Fast & Furious movies are king of the franchise crop; they all have interesting characters that audiences can get super emotionally invested in with ease. Hell, that fixation on the concept of family is why that beautiful Furious 7 ending homage to Paul Walker worked so well. These films had done such a good job establishing that all of these ragtag lovers of cool cars really were a tight-knit family, that the idea of saying goodbye to Paul Walker in this touching format fit right in with the emotional crux of the entire series.

And now, a new age of Fast & Furious begins. Hopefully they do end up calling Helen Mirren to be a bad guy (she's publicly expressed interest in it!) and hey, maybe time travel gets involved. After all, nything's possible with these movies and that's kind of why they're so much damn fun.