Vin Diesel Reveals Plans For 'Fast And Furious' Prequel And Spinoff Films; Which Characters Should Be Expanded?

Following the critical and box office success of “Furious 7," Universal is hoping to get the most bang for its buck from the hit action franchise. According to the series’ producer and principal star, members of the “Fast and Furious” gang may appear in more than just the upcoming sequels.

Speaking to Variety, Vin Diesel revealed that he is in preliminary discussions with the studio to develop a string of prequels and standalone films based on the characters established in the “Fast and Furious” franchise throughout the seven films thus far.

“We’ve written out storylines for various characters,” the 48-year-old actor told the outlet. “We’ve been playing with it for a long time. It’s a very rich property and we’re committed to treating it with a lot of class.”

It won't be a surprise if Universal decides to put a lot more of its eggs in the action franchise’s basket. After all, the summer release of “Furious 7” brought in more than $1.5 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie has already got fans of the series eagerly awaiting the 2017 release of the yet untitled eighth sequel.

According to Diesel, the new movies would either explore past versions of the characters that have been presented on screen already or have act as spinoffs set in the present day in which characters go on missions by themselves, without the help of Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his family of fast-driving criminals. As CinemaBlend notes, the green light to explore characters more in depth could allow some of the team members that died in past movies to return.

[SPOILER ALERT] Previous fan-favorites that have lost their lives along the way include Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot). However, one key star to the franchise has already expressed interest in expanding his character’s role. In “Fast Five,” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was introduced as Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs. Since that time, the muscular character has been helping the gang chase bad guys all across the world, but it’s heavily implied that he’s constantly off on side adventures of his own. Perhaps one of these movies could be a standalone vehicle for Johnson’s character to take on a bad guy on par with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) in the latest film. Unfortunately, only time will tell what Diesel and the producers have in mind, but Comic Book Resource notes that the actor has expressed interest in the past.

Which characters would you like to see in a “Fast and Furious” prequel or spinoff? Comment below or tweet your thoughts to @TylerMcCarthy.