CinemaCon: ‘Furious 8’ will roll into theaters in April 2017

“Furious 8” is a go. The next installment in Universal Pictures’ blockbuster action franchise will hit theaters April 14, 2017, series star Vin Diesel announced at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

“I swear to you and I swear to my brother upstairs we’re going to make the best movie you’ve ever seen,” Diesel said, referring to his late costar Paul Walker.

Walker’s 2013 death partway through the filming of “Furious 7” in an unrelated single-car crash put the movie and the future of the franchise into doubt. Director James Wan, producer Neal Moritz and the studio halted production for months, pushed back the release date and finished the film using special effects and enlisting Walker’s two brothers as body doubles.

Released April 3, “Furious 7” became Universal’s first film to gross $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and it did so in just 17 days.

Diesel did not provide any plot details about “Furious 8,” which does not yet have a director. During a recent appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” though, he said the action would head to New York City next.

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