Paul Walker, who played Brian in The Fast of the Furious, died in the middle of filming Furious 7 and his unexpected death forced writer Chris Morgan to change the ending of the film.
Speaking with Collider, Chris Morgan was asked what the original ending would have been had Walker not died and how the ending got changed to go along with Brian’s journey of who he really is and what he ultimately wants out of life.
“Well, the original ending, if I remember correctly, was our guys end up solving the problem and then kind of becoming—again, going more outlaw, it was sort of a happier ending that kind of ends with the insinuation that they were gonna go off onto this heist or this job. But the core issue for Brian, Paul’s character, was this kind of ‘Who am I?’ sort of question. He’s a guy who used to be a cop and in the thick of the action and a racer, and all this stuff, and now he has an amazing wife, a kid and another one on the way. Then he starts to look at his life and it’s not a midlife crisis but to say—we said it in the movie, ‘I miss the bullets, I miss the action’ and the point of the adventure was to show by the end of it that the thing that’s truly important to him is his family and being there. It wouldn’t mean that he has to stop those adventures or those things, but the context is just a little bit different, he has a different understanding of who he is at his core and what’s most important in life.”
Chris Morgan also spoke about how he wanted to address Brian’s absence in the latest The Fate of the Furious.
“The guy who is their father figure, their brother, their husband, who’s taught them their moral code, suddenly betrays it all, goes rogue, goes against them, and it becomes a real question of faith. So, do you guys just fall apart? Do you stick together? It’s so dramatic for the characters that at some point they would definitely turn to each other and say, “Oh my god, we gotta tell Brian, we gotta tell Mia. Something is going on with Dom, we don’t know what it is” So I think from a practical point of view for the characters you needed to address it. For the audience, and just as a fan as the writer on it, I also wanted to have one moment where we were able to –specifically at the beat at the end of the film– say to the audience, “We’re thinking of him too” in a respectful sort of way.”
The Fate of the Furious is now playing in theaters.
Source: Collider
