Paul Walker’s brother has ruled out returning as a physical stand-in for his late sibling for the final Fast & Furious film, suggesting instead that artificial intelligence could be used to recreate the character. Cody Walker, who helped complete 2015’s Furious 7 after his brother died during production, said the decision should ultimately rest with Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow, saying: “My stance is, it’s what Meadow wants to see done; it’s her father.” “I would not be interested in doing that again. I love the way his character exited the franchise.
They didn’t kill him off, they didn’t do something cheesy like that. It’s beautiful, [Brian] is off raising his kids,” Walker told Entertainment Weekly. He continued: “But if they want to do that, if Meadow would like to see that, they don’t need me or Caleb.
AI was not a thing back in 2014, so they could do that. There’s years of footage that was never used from these other Fast films. They’re the best in the business, they can figure that out.” Walker, who played Brian O’Conner in the Fast & Furious franchise, died at the age of 40 in a car crash in Santa Clarita, California, on 30 November 2013, while Furious 7 was still being made.
The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that he died from a combination of traumatic and thermal injuries after the Porsche Carrera GT in which he was travelling crashed and caught fire, and his death was ruled an accident. At the time, Cody and Caleb Walker, along with actor John Brotherton, stood in for Walker during the remaining production, while visual-effects artists reconstructed his appearance using footage and digital effects. As a result, instead of killing off Walker’s character, the film saw Brian separating from Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and choosing family life with Mia (Jordana Brewster) and their children.
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The forthcoming film, Fast Forever, is expected to bring the long-running franchise to a close. Diesel said last year that he wanted the final film to bring Brian back into the fold. The second thing was to return to the car culture, to the street racing.
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