Having raced to over $1B faster than a muscle car on experimental alien rocket fuel, Furious 8 is the highest-grossing film in Universal's history. Period. And while the film kind of felt like a natural end point for the franchise, that was NEVER going to be the case. So here we go, as Vin Diesel took the stage at CinemaCon to announce that Fast & Furious 8 will open on April 14th 2017.
What do we know about it? Not much. We don't even know who will direct it at this point, but expect Diesel and Co. to somehow ramp things up another notch.
Now that Universal has hired Mr. E.L. James aka Niall Leonard to write Fifty Shades Darker, the sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey, they're feeling confident enough to give both sequels release dates. Fifty Shades Darker will open on February 10th 2017 while Fifty Shades Freed arrives a year later on February 9th. There are your Valentines' Day dates for a couple years, guys. No director for either film yet, but expect Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan to return for the kinky drama despite their desire for a better contract.
Universal basically just laid out their entire slate for the next few years. Tom Cruise's drug trafficking film, Mena, will open on January 6th 2017, which is a pretty terrible date to be honest. Nothing good comes out on the first weekend of the year. Then again it's a reunion with Doug Liman, Cruise's director on Edge of Tomorrow, so there has to be some confidence there, right?
Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim sequel stomps to a new date, moving from April 7th 2017 to August 4th 2017. Duncan Jones' video game adaptation, Warcraft, has been getting kicked around the schedule for awhile now (not a good sign), and has been moved once again to June 10th 2016. There are just so many blockbusters that finding breathing room is nearly impossible. And finally Universal has set an "Untitled Monster Franchise Film" for March 30th 2018, moving from April 21st 2017.
