British actor Jason Statham is officially on board the eighth installment in the "Fast & Furious" series of films.
Because of the astounding box-office success of "Furious 7," an eighth movie was immediately brought by Universal Pictures to the drawing board. Lead star Vin Diesel earlier confirmed that he will reprise his role as Dominic Toretto. Now Statham revealed that his character Deckard Shaw will return as one of the villains in "Fast & Furious 8."
"We're already talking about doing another one, part eight," the English action star relayed to Access Hollywood. "I'm a newcomer. I just got invited to the party in this last one, so it's nice to know I'm going to be doing another."
Statham joined the franchise in 2013's "Fast & Furious 6" in a cameo role to establish his character for "Furious 7." Deckard Shaw is the older brother of Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), who, with the help of Dom and his team, was captured by the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service after a plane crash that left him in a comatose state. The older Shaw followed the group to avenge his brother. Dom managed to defeat Shaw, and he was locked in a secret, high-security prison facility at the end of the film.
"Furious 7" earned over $1.5 billion worldwide when it was released on April 3, and became the fourth highest-grossing film of all time. It also marks the last movie appearance of Paul Walker, who portrayed the role of Dom's friend and brother-in-law Brian O'Conner, since the actor died in a vehicular accident while the film was still in the middle of production. Walker's remaining scenes were shot with the help of his younger brothers Caleb and Cody as stand-ins to finish the film.
Aside from Diesel and Statham, Dwayne Johnson also confirmed that he would appear in the eighth movie.
"Fast & Furious 8" is slated to premiere on April 14, 2017.
