Welcome to the “Fast Family,” Michael Lesslie.
On Thursday, “Fast and Furious” star and producer Vin Diesel announced that Lesslie will write the script for Universal’s “Fast Forever,” mapping out Dominic Toretto and his crew’s final quarter-mile.
Diesel shared the news on Instagram, posting a black-and-white photo of himself meeting with Lesslie to discuss the script for the long-anticipated franchise finale, dated for theatrical release on March 17, 2028.
“25 years. Eight directors. Countless writers, crew members, performers, each one giving something real to a saga that has outlasted trends, cynics, and time itself,” Diesel began his caption. “That doesn’t happen by accident… It happens because people show up and pour themselves into something bigger than any one individual.”
That conversation, Diesel explained, helped him recapture the feeling of “a story with something real beating inside it.”
“There is a particular weight that comes with delivering a finale. A responsibility you feel in your chest, to everyone who gave something to get here, to the audience that stayed,” Diesel continued. “You don’t take that lightly. You take it as fuel. And when you find out you’re going back to Los Angeles… back to the streets where it all began, something clicks into place. The city that made the first film feel alive, still here, still holding. Coming home to close it out right. That’s not logistics. That’s a gift.”
As Diesel noted, the stakes are indeed high. Over the past 25 years, the “Fast & Furious” movies have grossed a total of $7.3 billion, making it Universal’s most profitable and longest-running franchise (2015’s “Furious 7″ is the top-grossing installment with $1.5 billion worldwide; 2023’s “Fast X” grossed $704 million). By the time “Fast Forever” debuts, fans will have endured a five-year wait to find out what happened after the explosive last minutes of “Fast X,” marking the longest stretch between installments since the franchise began.
Sources say Lesslie is rewriting a script previously written by Aaron Rabin and Zach Dean. The screenwriter most recently penned “The Hunger Games” prequels “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” and “Sunrise on the Reaping,” as well as “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” and Riz Ahmed’s contemporary “Hamlet.” Lesslie has also been in talks to write Marvel’s next X-Men movie.
Lesslie is represented by CAA, Untitled, Casarotto and attorney Jim Gilio at Sloan Offer. Universal had no comment.