After four years and four sets of writers, the final Fast & Furious chapter is taking shape — and Vin Diesel says the script had him in tears.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
August 18, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Vin Diesel says the final mainline Fast & Furious film, titled Fast Forever, will start shooting in December after four years of development and multiple sets of writers.
- Diesel calls Michael Lesslie’s latest script the best he’s read in decades and says it moved him to tears, hinting at a more emotional finale that reconnects to the original 2001 film.
- Fast Forever will pick up Fast X’s cliffhanger, bring back Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Gal Gadot’s Gisele, be directed by returning filmmaker Louis Leterrier, and is slated for a March 17, 2028 theatrical release.
Vin Diesel finally has a start date for the last ride. The Fast & Furious star says Fast Forever, the 11th and final mainline installment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, is expected to begin filming in December after four years of development and multiple rounds of writers. Diesel revealed the production timeline on Monday night, August 17, while attending a 25th-anniversary screening of the movie that started it all.
“We start shooting in December, if I can make good on the request from the studio,” Diesel told Variety. “I’m in a good place, though. I had to go through four sets of writers, four years of development, to get to something that I felt would be worthy of a finale.”
That finale has a massive legacy to close out. Since The Fast and the Furious arrived in 2001 with Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and the late Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner at the center of a Los Angeles street-racing story, the series has transformed into Universal’s longest-running and most profitable franchise.
Its movies have generated a combined $7.3 billion worldwide while evolving from street races and truck hijackings into international heists, espionage and increasingly outrageous automotive stunts.
But Diesel is signaling that Fast Forever could bring some of that focus back to the franchise’s emotional core. Speaking to the audience before the anniversary screening, the actor again described his reaction to the latest screenplay. “Halfway through, one tear,” he said. “By the end of the script that we crafted and worked so hard to make right for you after four years, I was crying. I couldn’t hold it back.”
Diesel joked that his sister eventually told him, “No more crying, bro,” before adding, “Sometimes, even the toughest guys in the world need to cry.”
The comments expand on Diesel’s recent praise for screenwriter Michael Lesslie’s draft. Earlier this month, he called it “the best script I have read in decades” and wrote, “I am still crying…”
Lesslie came aboard after earlier versions were
Diesel also teased a connection between Fast Forever and the original The Fast and the Furious, telling fans they would be glad to see the first movie during its anniversary theatrical return. The original film grossed $207 million worldwide and launched a franchise that eventually expanded into short films, animation and the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off.
Fast Forever will also have plenty of unfinished business waiting when cameras roll. Fast X earned more than $700 million worldwide in 2023 before ending on a cliffhanger and setting up the returns of Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Gal Gadot’s Gisele.
Louis Leterrier, who directed Fast X, is slated to return for the finale, though he recently said that he had not yet read the latest script. “There will be an ending, and it’s great,” Leterrier said. “We’ll see, hopefully.”
Fast Forever is scheduled to hit theaters on March 17, 2028.
