The Big Picture
- The Fast & Furious franchise has struggled to continue without Paul Walker's character, Brian O'Conner, and it's time to make a decision about his future in the films.
- Furious 7 successfully incorporated Paul Walker's scenes using CGI and the help of his brothers, giving him a proper sendoff, but subsequent movies have awkwardly explained his absence.
- It's a disservice to Paul Walker's character and what he meant to the franchise to quickly dismissively explain why Brian O'Conner isn't there. It's time to truly say goodbye and let go.
Almost a decade ago, on November 30, 2013, the world lost Paul Walker. TheFast & Furious star had been on a Thanksgiving break from filming Furious 7 when he tragically died in a car crash.
It left his co-stars and fans gutted, yet somehow the Fast & Furious team was able to finish Walker's final film, one which gave him a fitting sendoff, while leaving his character of Brian O'Conner alive, happy, and healthy.
That worked so well because most of us thought that the franchise would now come to an end. How could there be any more movieswithout Paul Walker? Would we even want to watch them? The problem has been that the films haven't stopped.
Three Fast & Furious films have been made since Paul Walker's passing, and Vin Diesel announced back in April that Part 2 of Fast X would be coming out in 2025. Brian O'Conner isn't there, yet he's still mentioned, or shown in flashbacks, and his absence is quickly explained away. The franchise has been trying to mourn Paul Walker while also keeping him alive. It's time to make a decision and commit to it.
After defeating international terrorist Owen Shaw, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and the rest of the crew have separated to return to more normal lives. However, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), Owen's older brother, is thirsty for revenge. A slick government agent offers to help Dom and company take care of Shaw in exchange for their help in rescuing a kidnapped computer hacker who has developed a powerful surveillance program.
'Furious 7' Gave Fans a Perfect Goodbye to Paul Walker
When Paul Walker died in 2013, most of his scenes for Furious 7 had already been filmed. This kept the movie salvageable, with just some tweaks needing to be done to the main plot. If you were watching the film and had no clue about what had happened to Walker, you would have never noticed his absence.
That is thanks to the VFX team from Peter Jackson's Weta Digital. In 2015, their supervisor, Joe Letteri, told The Hollywood Reporter how they pulled it off. He explained that the team hoped maybe they could create one digital scene of Walker, then they'd have to figure out a way to finish the story. That all changed when Paul's two lookalike brothers, Caleb Walker and Cody Walker, stepped up and offered to help finish the film.
"It allowed us to scan them and work with them in the scenes, it really gave us something as close to Paul as we could hope for. That got us a long way toward being able to create a realistic character and performance. Then we started to work on: What does the story really want to be, and can we do it? The scope of the work bloomed so we could tell the story and finish the character arc.”
260 shots of Paul Walker were created with the help of his brothers. Another 90 came from outtakes and old footage. The team also had to painstakingly recreate Walker's voice from previous films. All of this helped to create a final product that gave him a proper sendoff.
The use of his own family to play him only added to the story, making it feel like a powerful tribute rather than a creepy resurrection for money's sake. It all led to a simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking finale with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker together for one last time, with a CGI recreation of Paul's face put over the face of his brother in that ending where Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner are side by side in their cars.
The CGI worked and fans could feel like they were saying goodbye to the real Paul Walker as O'Conner in his white car drove off into the sun, still alive. It was a great goodbye, except that it wasn't.
'Fast & Furious' Has Awkwardly Kept Paul Walker Around
You'd be forgiven for thinking that the franchise would end after the seventh film. What else was there left to do after so many sequels, especially when your co-lead is now gone? A film without him would feel so empty and uncomfortable.
Still, another movie happened. Three more have come and gone since Walker died actually, and all have had to find an awkward way to explain why Brian O'Conner is nowhere to be seen.
Furious 7 had O'Conner wanting out of his dangerous life. He wanted to focus on his wife, Mia (Jordana Brewster), and their children. He wanted a safe, peaceful life for them. That made sense and didn't feel like a forced way out.
What has felt a little forced is how the future movies have brought up Brian O'Conner and explained why he isn't there. In the eighth film, The Fate of the Furious, Dom goes rogue to work for Charlize Theron's group, even stealing an EMP. Somehow, Brian, his own brother-in-law, stays away. That doesn't make much sense. The movie explains this away. Brian never knew. The group thought about telling Brian what was happening but quickly decided to keep their promise to leave him out of their problems.
In F9, Jordana Brewster's Mia is back in the Fast & Furious franchise after not being in the previous film. Brian's absence is quickly explained again. He's not there because, well, he's babysitting their kids and Dom's kid as well. That feels a little far-fetched, doesn't it?
Why would a family member stay away like this? At the end of the film, we do get a touching tribute when the group gathers for a meal at Dom's home. It doesn't look like Brian is going to show up, but then we hear the rev of a car and a blue Nissan roars up the street. Dom turns around and smiles at the noise. We know it's Brian. The Nissan then turns into the driveway. Brian has arrived and will be part of the dinner.
For Fast X, we actually see Paul Walker with a flashback to Fast Five, where Brian and Dom are stealing a vault. It's a way to put Walker in the film somehow, but it also sets up the events of the newest film by showing that its villain, Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), was there when it all happened.
Years later, he's out for revenge for the death of his father, and his mission is to kill everyone Dom knows. Brian is brought up with it being mentioned that he and Mia have been notified of the threat and are now in hiding.
It's Time to Truly Say Goodbye to Paul Walker in 'Fast X Part 2'
By doing this over and over, quickly explaining away the franchise's co-lead, it makes it impossible to move on and let go. Brian O'Conner stays hidden on the sidelines where he should never be in the first place. It's a disservice to his character and what he meant to the movies. To just quickly make up some excuse for why he isn't there is way too dismissive. Vin Diesel has talked about the need to move on from Paul Walker and Brian O'Conner.
"That moment in 2013 when the world was struggling with his loss, the studio made a very bold and righteous and daring decision to keep Brian O’Conner alive. I will give you this without spoiling anything: I couldn’t imagine this saga ending without truly saying goodbye to Brian O’Conner."
Diesel is right that it was a very bold move to keep Brian O'Conner alive. Normally, if an actor behind a character dies in an ongoing film or series, that character dies as well. Keeping Brian alive was probably the best choice.
It was already so painful to lose Paul Walker. Losing Brian O'Conner as well in a film franchise that is supposed to be fun would have been too much. But the films can't keep going on without him. If Fast X Part 2 is truly the last, then it's time to let Paul Walker and Brian O'Conner go. Diesel and company have about eighteen months to figure out what to do with Paul Walker and Brian.
Hopefully they spent the time off during the writer's and actor's strikes trying to figure that out, rather than trying to conjure up more bonkers CGI car chases. We don't need to see cars race down the Hoover Dam; we need to see Brian O'Conner's character no longer being held onto.
There are a few ways to do this. He can come back and be given some sort of hero's death where we see his car, and he sacrifices himself to save others, like John Cena's Jakob Toretto did in Fast X. Most likely, we'll get a scene with him and Dom together again, where we see not just a car, but actually see Brian. With the wonders of CGI now, as seen in the recreation of Luke Skywalker in The Book of Boba Fett, anything is possible.
Brian doesn't need to be in the whole film, but there can be a few scenes at least, with the help of Walker's brothers, where Brian can get a goodbye in which he's still alive. After that, it's time to say not only goodbye to Brian O'Conner forever, but the Fast & Furious films as well. They can't keep going on without Paul Walker.
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