Though the Fast and Furious movies are technically a series, and the same heroes return for each installment (for the most part), the individual plots of the different movies are largely self contained. But the seventh and most recent installment in the franchise strayed from this a bit, tying in with previous movies in a way that the other movies didn't. Included in this was Jason Statham's character, Deckard Shaw, who was revealed not only to be the brother of the villain from the previous movie, but also the man responsible for killing Han all the way back in the third movie.

Statham recently remarked in an interview with Access Hollywood that he would be returning for the 8th movie as well, suggesting that the next movie will tie things together to an even greater degree. None of this is really all that surprising. The ending of the seventh movie set up a sequel with Statham in it in a way that wasn't very subtle even by F&F standards. More importantly, the addition of Statham added extra star-power to a franchise that, sadly, lost its main star prior to the release of Furious 7.

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Why it matters

It seems almost strange that Jason Statham, star of three Transporter movies, didn't show up in this car-based action franchise until relatively late in the series. But he's obviously a good fit, and seeing him as a villain instead of the hero is also kind of cool. So now we can look forward to seeing what kind of insane and completely over the top and awesome stunt is used to break Deckard Shaw out of the crazy high security prison he'll no doubt start off in at the beginning of the 8th movie.

Furious 7 Film Review

You can read our full movie review here.