Charlize Theron Joins ‘Fast 8’ Cast: Get Ready For ‘The Fast And The Furiosa’

It’s official. Mad Max: Fury Road star Charlize Theron is joining Fast 8. The action and racing franchise which Vin Diesel built from a basic remake of Point Break is attracting a lot of heavy hitters in Hollywood, apparently.

While it’s doubtful that Theron will be playing her Mad Max role alongside Dominic Toretto and his growing “family,” the similarity between the film franchises is uncanny. One started as a simple plot about a police officer investigating a team of street racers and their occasional literal highway robberies. Mad Max started with a police officer who lost everything to Australia’s violent criminal element, and ended up bonding with his car (while he still had it).

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Back when Dwayne Johnson joined the franchise as Dominic Toretto’s enemy, he apparently started a chain reaction attracting more of Hollywood’s elite to join the series. In Fast & Furious 6, we saw Luke Evans join the cast as the main villain, and then in Furious 7, Jason Statham played his vengeful brother as Kurt Russell signed on to play the mysterious Mr. Nobody, and MMA champion Ronda Rousey was a security officer.

Now, the franchise is attracting some Oscar caliber actors and actresses, as Charlize Theron is joining Fast 8. Helen Mirren was rumored to have a role, as well as Angelina Jolie and Ruby Rose, though nothing is known of the fate of these rumors. They may have been named for wishful thinking, though Mirren has stated that she wants to be a villain, and Vin Diesel wants her in the franchise, as well.

Helen Mirren has certainly proven herself in the Bruce Willis action franchise, RED.

It’s currently unknown what role Charlize Theron is due to play in Fast 8, though the popular rumor is that she’ll be a villain. The Verge claims that she may be teaming up with a villain coming straight from Game of Thrones, Kristofer Hivju. This could be a rather entertaining evil mirror image of Theron’s role in Mad Max: Fury Road, where she played the lead protagonist alongside Tom Hardy’s Max.

Charlize Theron was first approached for her Fast 8 role in February, but between her busy filming schedule and her insistence toward waiting for the script to be finished before confirming her involvement, it wasn’t until today that she was officially added.

Following the unfortunate death of Paul Walker, Vin Diesel and the cast of Furious 7 had taken some time off to mourn. Now, Vin is moving forward with a new trilogy of sorts, possibly hoping to make the car-centric equivalent of Star Wars. Now adding Charlize Theron, Fast 8 is expected to take place in New York, with Furious 7 having completed the story created back in Tokyo Drift.

HEROIC SCOOP CONFIRMED: Charlize Theron Officially Cast In ‘Fast 8’ https://t.co/hIwYRoJjla pic.twitter.com/l6DSdCwcxp

— Heroic Hollywood (@heroichollywood) April 7, 2016

Jason Statham will be back as well, which indicates there may be more to the story of family revenge after Dominic Toretto and his team took down Deckard Shaw’s brother. It’s unknown how involved he’ll be in the action, since Hobbs locked him up in a maximum security prison cell. He may simply be running the mission from his cell, giving orders to the characters played by Kristofer Hivju and Charlize Theron.

The Fast 8 release date is set to arrive on April 14, 2017. Are you ready for “The Fast and the Furiosa”?

[Image via Mike Windle/Getty Images for WE Day]