Helen Mirren Added To ‘Fast 8’ Cast
Shooting for Fast 8 began three weeks ago, and we’re now learning that they’ve added a member to the cast. According to Elle magazine, Helen Mirren has been added to the cast. Now, this casting choice might seem out of left field, if you aren’t familiar with Mirren’s credits, but Helen Mirren has proven she can kick some butt in high-budget action films.
Mirren has pulled more than her weight in action films like Red and Red 2. It sounds like Mirren might be very excited to be a part of the franchise and is ready to join the cast. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight the British dame revealed the following back in March of 2015.
“I’ve always wanted to be in a Fast and Furious movie but they’ve never asked me. I don’t understand why!”
Looks like the powers that be over at Fast & Furious got their stuff together and decided to take Helen Mirren up on her offer. She also sent a message to the franchise’s star Vin Diesel, jokingly stating, “Vin [Diesel], get your act together!”
The star confirmed the news herself in an interview with Elle magazine.
“I want to be making film and theater, but film is particularly relevant. I like it to be serious. Of course, having said that I’m about to do Fast and Furious 8, but that’s for the fun of it. So maybe that’s what I want as well, some fun and some relevant, serious, important movies.”
Mirren joins an already very packed cast with newcomers to the franchise including Charlize Theron, Scott Eastwood, and familiar faces to the franchise like Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Jordana Brewster, Lucas Black, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, and Ludacris. Also rumored is Eva Mendes in the role of Monica Fuentes. So far, it’s unknown what role Helen Mirren will take in Fast 8, but it would be fun to see her team up with Jason Statham’s evil Deckard Shaw.
Recently, Vin Diesel revealed the cast on his Instagram page, but Helen Mirren was left out of the photo. Odds are three weeks ago she wasn’t on set to film or Universal had not closed the deal yet.
It sounds like Fast 8 will kick off a new trilogy in the series, as Diesel said as much. Fast 7 was supposed to kick off the trilogy, but with the death of Paul Walker, the franchise’s co-lead, much of the story had to be reworked, which included his brothers Caleb and Cody standing in as his body double, while old clips and computer generated material was placed over their faces to have his character in the film. At the time of Walker’s tragic death, he only filmed some of his scenes.
Due to curiosity factor of how Universal would pull off the film using VFX, Furious 7 went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time and certainly the highest grossing movie in the franchise’s history. Given the massive success at the box office, the cast decided to move on with the series.
Three weeks into filming Fast 8, Diesel posted another tribute to Paul Walker on his Instagram.
“Many of the crew members who have worked on several of the past Fast films are here again to help us make something special. One of them at the end of the week came up to me and said wow what we are capturing on film is excellent… And then looked at me and said Paul would be proud. #wemakethemwithourhearts”
As The Inquisitr reported, Fast 8, 9, and 10 have been announced with their corresponding release dates. Fast 8 will hit theaters on April 14, 2017, and the other two will be released on April 19, 2019 and April 2, 2021 respectively.
[Photo by Summit Entertainment]
