Actor Vin Diesel has shared a picture of the late Paul Walker’s brother, Cody, from the sets of the upcoming ninth Fast & Furious film, fuelling speculation online that the character of Brian O’Conner will make some sort of appearance in the film. Cody and Caleb appeared as stand-ins for Paul after he died in a car crash, with filming on Fast & Furious 7 still unfinished.
“There is something special that happens every time Cody comes to visit production.... Always making Pablo proud! All love, always,” Diesel captioned the picture. State-of-the-art CGI was employed to superimpose Paul’s face on the bodies of Caleb and Cody, as filming continued in his absence.
Caleb and Cody ahead of the release of Fast & Furious 8 had hinted that similar techniques could be used to bring Brian back for future instalments. Caleb told Entertainment Tonight that they’d spoken with Diesel about the possibility. “I had a phone call with Vin for about an hour and we really discussed this a while back. He wanted (our) blessing. (Diesel asked if it) would be acceptable to maybe bring Paul’s character back… to really kind of let his fans know he’s still out there,” said Caleb.
Paul was given an emotional send-off at the end of Furious 7, which showed his character retiring to a life of domesticity with his wife and children. Actor Jordana Brewster, who plays Brian’s wife Mia in the series, has already been announced to be making a return.
Caleb and Cody said in another interview to the Associated Press that they hope their brother’s return is handled tastefully. “I just hope we get to — I don’t know — have a little cameo and bring Paul back to save the day and I get to help create that again. That’s my dream and I hope we get to do that in one of the future movies,” Caleb said. And Cody added, “I think there could potentially be a way to do it. But it would take a lot of thought and it’d have to be tasteful. It would have to be tasteful. He was the real deal, the real car guy. And in his absence… I think it’s lost its way in a big way.”
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