Helen Mirren gets what Helen Mirren wants. After first revealing her desire to appear in the FAST & FURIOUS franchise, Vin Diesel extended an invitation to the actress to join the cast of the upcoming eighth installment of the series. Helen Mirren's role in THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS will unfortunately be a small one and she sadly won't be behind the wheel of a car as she had wished, but it turns out that her character will be an important one in the ongoing mythology of the franchise.
Luke Evans, who played baddie Owen Shaw in FAST & FURIOUS 6 and FURIOUS 7, recently spoke with Yahoo about whether or not Shaw, who was in a coma the last we saw of him, could return in a future sequel. Evans isn't set to appear in THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS, but he does seem to have some inside information on his character's status and revealed that the sequel will introduce a new member of the Shaw clan.
People come around from comas, so who knows? He’s in a military hospital because he’s the most wanted man in the world, but he’s got a very powerful brother, and he’s now got a mum as well, who’s played by Helen Mirren.
Although it doesn't seem that Luke Evans will have a part to play in THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS, his brother Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) will be back, this time as part of the team tasked with discovering why Dominic (Vin Diesel) has seemingly betrayed his family by aligning himself with Cipher (Charlize Theron). With Helen Mirren playing the matriarch of the Shaw family, this certainly leaves room for her to appear in the remaining two sequels, although I would hope that they'd finally give her a car.
THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS will hit theaters on April 14, 2017.