Vin Diesel says The Fate of the Furious is the first in another ‘trilogy’

CARS flying out of high-rise car parks. Out-racing a nuclear sub, on ice. The Fast and the Furious action franchise clearly operate by the mantra more is more.

CARS flying out of high-rise parking garages. The Rock wrangling a torpedo. Out-racing a nuclear sub, on ice.

The Fast & Furious action franchise — and its producer and star, Vin Diesel — clearly operate by the mantra more is more.

All these OTT happenings take place in the eighth film in the series, The Fate of the Furious.

The story picks up with Dom (Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) enjoying the slow life (interrupted by the odd street race through Havana) on their honeymoon.

But when Dom is seduced by a criminal mastermind, played by Charlize Theron, he goes rogue and betrays those closest to him — in F&F speak, his “family”.

“I was vacillating about doing 8 but the idea of going dark sounded good to me,” says Diesel in Los Angeles.

Vin Diesel in a scene from the eigth Fast & Furious film The Fate of the Furious.

“I had a lot of anxiety about it because for decades we told the world that the franchise is about family, (but we were going to) play with that.”

However, he adds, rocking the F&F family’s foundations reflected reality — “Because of the absence of, as Paul Walker’s mother would say, my other half.”

Walker died in November 2013 when the Porsche he was a passenger in crashed in California. Shooting on Fast & Furious 7 had to be completed using Walker’s brothers as stand-ins.

“So, we’ve gone down a dark road,” Diesel continues.

“The only way I thought I could ask the audience to see another chapter after Furious 7 was if I did something radical. What I did was sacrifice my character; I’m sacrificing Dom in order to make chapter eight a film you have to see.”

For revheads, there’s one more reason to see The Fate of the Furious: “The fastest car ever built,” says Diesel.

Vin Diesel (as Dom) opposite Hollywood starlet Charlize Theron (as Cipher) during a scene filmed in Havana, Cuba.

“It’s insane. I’m not even supposed to talk about it yet, but they will unveil it on April 11.”

While Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Nathalie Emmanuel, Chris Bridges and Kurt Russell reprise their roles in the new movie, they’re rather upstaged by the arrival of Oscar winners Theron and Helen Mirren.

“How did I get her?” smirks Diesel of Dame Mirren.

“She was talking all over the press saying, ‘I love Vin Diesel and I’d love to be in Fast & Furious’. That went viral. Then I saw her at a Golden Globes party and she said, ‘Get your act together, Vin’. So we wrote her in.”

The way Diesel tells it, those two ladies were just the tip of the iceberg.

“Without ratting on the other actors, there were three or four other Oscar-winners that also wanted to be in the movie.”

He shrugs his shoulders. “We just didn’t have room.”

Michelle Rodriguez (as Letty) and Vin Diesel (as Dom) during filming in Havana, Cuba.

With Dom going rogue, Diesel spends most of his screen time in Fate with Theron.

“There’s a powerful magic every time Charlize and myself work together,” he says, earnestly. “We push each other beyond belief.”

But while he was getting along famously with Theron, Dwayne Johnson was another story.

Johnson is credited with saving — then taking to another level — the franchise after joining the family for 2011’s Fast Five.

During the Fate of the Furious shoot last year, Johnson publicly called out his male co-stars in an Instagram post: “Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t. The ones that don’t are too chicken s*** to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses.”

It quickly emerged that Diesel was the main target of The Rock’s frustrations.

Diesel sighs.

“I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy to have a conflict with me,” he says.

Dwayne Johnson in a scene from the latest instalment of the franchise.

“Maybe it’s where I’m from, maybe it’s the life that I’ve lived, maybe it’s my tenure working at the toughest New York clubs, fighting every single night and getting away from that ... not wanting to be such a tough guy and such a godfather all the time.”

Straight-faced, he adds: “Sometimes I just want to be a teddy bear.”

In that spirit, he refuses to take a swipe at his co-star.

“Dwayne is my little brother. Dwayne is somebody that I care very much about. This was a very arduous shoot. It was the biggest production Universal ever launched. Also, as the caretaker and father figure for so many decades, who was now going down a dark road in a conflicted headspace, it meant that the other cast didn’t get to film with me — other than Charlize. I’m sure that added a strain.”

His eyes begin to water.

“And for me, the most exciting part of doing these movies was always working with my brother Brian (Walker’s character); my brother Pablo,” he says, using his nickname for Walker.

While Diesel sees The Fate of the Furious as the first in another “trilogy”, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that it is also moving the franchise on without the guy he started it with back in 2001. He still gets emotional whenever he mentions Walker.

The Fate of the Furious promises plenty of action - as always.

But he also views F&F history his own way.

“It’s really hysterical that people would think that there is that kind of beef with Dwayne,” Diesel continues.

“When I hired him to be in Fast and Furious, it was something I was very proud of. He was coming off the Tooth Fairy and I cast him in this role that was originally written for Tommy Lee Jones. I think he has brought a lot to the franchise.”

As for Johnson, late last year the ever-diplomatic star brushed over the beef when News Corp Australia asked if he may no longer be friendly enough with certain colleagues to return for future instalments.

“I can’t speak for the rest of the cast. But it all depends on the creative and the story,” Johnson said.

“You know it’s a really unique cast and we’ve enjoyed establishing what it means to be family ... I dunno, I’ve always been one to really not worry about the next one.”

Diesel, naturally, is full steam ahead.

He wants to continue the franchise he and Walker built into a $5 billion (and counting) empire, so beloved by a hardcore, cross-generational and multiracial fanbase.

“I wanted to change the face of Hollywood and I wanted to be the first multicultural movie star,” says the 49-year-old, who is uncertain of his own racial mix.

F&F, Diesel adds, “is reflective of what millennium we’re in. The face of that millennium is a multicultural one and I was just lucky to be born at the right time”.

***The Fate of the Furious opens Wednesday

Originally published as Vin Diesel says The Fate of the Furious is the first in another ‘trilogy’