Paul Walker’s character will not be dissappeared in Fast & Furious 7

“Fast & Furious 7” Paul Walker died in November with filming only half-finished, although given the age we live in fans had already seen Walker on set and in character. Cutting Walker out of the film entirely would have been a costly very expensive.  Less cynically, people could argue that keeping Walker in the film was the right move. It would provide closure. And after all, the “Fast” franchise was something like Walker’s life’s work. But that opened up all kinds of creative problems for the Fast filmmakers — particularly since everyone attached to the film been proclaiming that “Fast 7” is an attempt at world-building towards a new trilogy.

(Translation: They probably already had half-sketched plans for Brian O’Conner in Fast 10.)
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the crew behind “Fast 7” has opted to “retire” Brian O’Conner. He will specifically not be killed off, according to the Reporter’s sources. Universal had no comment on the report, but the rumor smells true. Given the high-speed nature of Paul Walker’s death, it probably felt like bad taste to kill a character played by Walker in a movie about cars driving very fast. Still, it’s difficult to imagine how O’Conner will leave the series. The franchise has a well-stated commitment to Family, and “Furious 6” reaffirmed the central tenet — sentimental, but full-hearted — that the characters will die for each other, even after they’ve ridden into several different last-big-score sunsets. We’ll find out O’Conner’s happy fate in April 2015.