Vin Diesel has stunned audiences with the announcement that Brian O’Conner, the character played by the late Paul Walker, will return to the Fast & Furious franchise for its upcoming finale, Fast X: Part 2.
Announced at FuelFest 2025 in Los Angeles, the action movie star made a surprise appearance to inform fans that he was bringing the franchise back to LA, with the movie now returning to the series’ street racing roots. These were just two of the three non-negotiables Diesel raised in discussions with Universal Pictures executives for the final instalment’s tentative release window in April 2027.
Diesel then cryptically remarked that the final condition was the reunion between Brian O’Conner and his character, Dominic Toretto, drawing raucous cheers from the audience.
Despite this, the announcement was met with mixed reactions from fans, with some excited for the return of the fan-favourite character, while others denounced the return of O’Conner given Walker’s poignant send-off back in 2015’s Furious 7 due to the actor’s untimely demise in 2013.
With no further news on how O’Conner could be returning to the silver screen, the feasibility of his resurrection remains to be seen. Furious 7 utilised CGI and Walker’s brothers, Caleb and Cody, as physical stand-ins, while 2023’s Fast X used actual footage of Walker as O’Conner during a flashback.
Meanwhile, with mentions of O’Conner living out his family life in the Fast & Furious universe, even being seen pulling into the Toretto’s driveway in his signature 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R in 2021’s F9, the production team has clearly demonstrated the willingness to leave the door ajar for the character’s inclusion. Furthermore, film director Louis Leterrier also stated during an interview with TotalFilm that “the Walker family is still very much a part of this franchise… It just has to be the right moment, the right tone.”
With much uncertainty on how they will bring back O’Conner, and in what capacity, fans can only wait and see how things will rev up when Fast X: Part 2 hits the road in April 2027.
Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he’s not sleeping, he’s highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it’s honestly pretty close.
Kevin Low
Trinity Sun
