After what has seemed like endless strings of teases and run-arounds, all the speculation can finally be put to rest. Fast 8, the eighth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, is a go. Vin Diesel officially let the world in on the badly-kept secret by posting what appears to be a teaser poster of the movie.->ke3897 A quick look at the poster reveals a few important details about the movie. First, it’s scheduled to be released in April 2017 even though we know that things like release dates are subject to change at a moment’s notice.

The photo also showed the movie’s presumed tagline, New Roads Ahead. This could be tied into the possibility that Domenic Toretto and his crew will be running roughshod in a new location that has never been used in the F&F movie franchise. Judging by the photo, all signs seem to point to the Big Apple itself, New York City, as the location for the new movie. Additionally, the tagline could also be a reference to the fact that Fast 8 will be the first Fast & Furious movie since F3: Tokyo Drift that will not have Paul Walker in it.

We all know what happened to Walker and there’s a part of all F&F movies moving forward that will be somewhat incomplete without him in it. But, as the tag implies, there world doesn’t stop for those who want to embark on adventures, wherever it leads them. That appears to be what we’re in for with Fast 8 as Vin Diesel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and the rest of the cast return for the latest installment of the successful movie franchise.

F. Gray Gray, the director of films like Straight Outta Compton, Law Abiding Citizen and the Mark Wahlberg-starring The Italian Job, has been tapped by Diesel to direct the movie.

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Why it matters

I was actually a part of the camp that thought that the way Fast 7 ended was as good an ending for the franchise as a whole. Granted, it may have been due to Walker’s death, but the way it was developed somehow closed the chapter on a lot of the character’s lives. But that’s just me. I just watch the movies.

From a business standpoint, the Fast & Furious franchise remains a golden goose for Universal Pictures and as long as it stays so, the movies will just keep on coming. I’m not surprised that Fast 8 is already scheduled to begin filming this year as it prepares for a spring 2017 release. I don’t know too much about the plot, but we can all expect to see the usual cast of characters to be in the movie.

What I’m interested to see is how the move to New York City affects the integrity of those car chases the movie is famous for. The Big Apple is, after all, notorious for its bumper-to-bumper traffic, right? Only time will tell, I guess.