vin diesel

Years ago, when The Fast and Furious franchise first began, there’s no way we could’ve fathomed the myriad ways Universal would rework the words “fast” and “furious” into sequel titles. “No,” they said, “We will not simply call these movies The Fast and the Furious 1 - 8. We are creatives!” That creativity peaked with 2 Fast 2 Furious, (prayer emoji hands for whoever originally came up with that one), then along the way they sort of lost their mojo. But now, finally, with the eight installment we’re back on track with a brand new f-word added to the title. So long “fast,” this movie is all about fate!

Dwayne Johnson is a big man in every sense of the word. Physically, he’s a small planet, giving the moon a run for its money as the most important celestial body to be caught in Earth’s orbit. His personality and spirit, though, are even bigger. You rarely if ever hear stories about Johnson losing his cool or brushing off a fan, choosing instead to spend every waking minute of every waking day reminding us that movie stars do still exist in 2016.

Back when he was doing press rounds for 2015’s Furious 7, Vin Diesel made some pretty bold statements about the movie deserving to be nominated for an Academy Award (and let’s be real, the only thing more emotional last year than the final minutes of Furious 7 was, maybe, Carol). It, of course, wasn’t, which should come as no surprise, even though it was a critical and box office success, but that hasn’t stopped our buddy Vin, who is now saying that the next film in the franchise, Fast 8, should be Oscar-worthy.

Ang Lee is am ambitious filmmaker, but ambition doesn’t always pay off. With Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon he fused emotional relationships with the dazzle of wuxia action, and in Life of Pi he told a story about spirituality and survival through an innovative use of CG and motion-capture performance. In Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk Lee is once again pushing the boundaries of filmmaking shooting the film in 120 frames per second (five times the normal rate of your average movie). What results is a stunning and unique viewing experience, but ultimately a failed experiment.

For those of us who were even more enamored than we thought we’d be by a talking raccoon and a slightly-less-wordy walking tree, Guardians of the Galaxy was an absolute delight. Luckily, all of our favorites are returning for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and we’ll get to see our favorite Vin Diesel-voiced sapling once again, now quite a bit diminished in size from his last appearance. For the first film, Diesel learned how to say his character’s recurring line “I am Groot” in six different languages, and now he says the director of the sequel is making him learn almost three times that many.

More than fast cars or fistfights or crime-committing while crime-fighting, the Fast and Furious movies are about one thing: family. And family, as we all know, means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. Vin Diesel really wants to make sure we don’t forget about the late Paul Walker’s character Brian O’Connor, because apparently he wants to find some way to bring him back.

Veteran actor and beloved curmudgeon Tommy Lee Jones has occasionally raised a few eyebrows over the course of his career with roles that defy his Quite Serious persona (Batman Forever, for example) and prove that he’s no different from any other working actor (he likes paychecks, for example). As it turns out, we were robbed of seeing Jones tackle another surprising role, but what we were given in exchange is so much better.

Things just got a little weird with alleged beef between the The Rock and Vin Diesel.

You’ve probably heard that Vin Diesel recently became the first celebrity to reach over 100 million likes on Facebook — a level of validation that mere mortals such as you or I may never know. A lot of those likes are the result of Diesel’s commitment to his fans and to sharing photos from his new films, like the latest pic from the set of Fast 8, which features your new favorite BFF pairing: Diesel and Dame Helen Mirren.

Last year, Helen Mirren declared her love for the Fast & Furious franchise and, in particular, Vin Diesel, who was pretty convinced that Furious 7 could win the Oscar for Best Picture. It looks like Fast 8 will have a much better chance of securing a nomination (at the very least) as Mirren says she’s joined the cast of the upcoming sequel. And now we patiently wait as the greatest friendship of our time blossoms, inevitably yielding a series of delightful photos featuring Mirren and Diesel.

To honor the 15th anniversary of the movie that started it all, Universal is re-releasing The Fast and the Furious in theaters nationwide. Revisiting your introduction to Dom, Letty, Brian and the magical world of NOS should help make the wait for Fast 8 a little easier, but you’ll only have a limited time to see the original film on the big screen.

The death of Paul Walker left some mighty big shoes to fill in the Fast & Furious franchise. Some film series might have packed it in after the death of one of its biggest stars, but the Fast-verse is a little bit different than your average blockbuster property. For one thing, characters have been coming and going from its ever-expanding storyline from the very beginning. For another, Furious 7 was the biggest movie in the series to date by a very large margin; it’s worldwide box office total was almost double that of Fast & Furious 6. So these movies aren’t going anywhere. But they do need some new stars.