It was previously reported that Cody Walker, brother of the late Paul Walker, would be pursuing an acting career after serving as the body double for Paul in "Fast and the Furious 7." It was widely speculated he would join the cast for "Fast and Furious 8," but a new report confirms that this will not be the case.
"There's no truth behind it," confirmed a representative from Universal Pictures, speaking to media outlet Polygon. Coming from an official representative, this debunks the rumors that Cody would be returning but now as a new character, speculated to be a relative to Paul Walker's character Brian O'Connor.
Rumors of Cody joining "Fast and Furious 8" began as soon as he and his elder brother Caleb stepped in to film the rest of Paul's scenes. When Cody announced he would be entering the business of acting, it was presumed his first project was to join the next film in the franchise.
This was further implied when the IMDB listing for the cast of "Fast and Furious 8" included Cody's name. Back in November, Vice Chairman of NBC Universal Ron Meyer stated (via Variety) that Paul Walker's character would be represented in future films and many took this as an implication that Cody would be coming in as a new O'Connor character.
Following this statement from Universal Pictures, Cody Walker's name has since been taken down from the cast list of "Fast and the Furious 8."
The film won't be the first in the franchise to go without Paul Walker's character. "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" did not feature Brian O'Connor and Vin Diesel's character Dominic Toretto only appeared in a small cameo role at the very end of the film.
"Fast and Furious 8" is already in production and is being directed by "Straight Outta Compton" director F. Gary Gray and is scheduled to release on April 14, 2017.
