'Fast and Furious 8' is an upcoming action thriller in the 'Fast and the Furious' movie franchise. Producer Neal Moritz revealed the implications of Paul Walker's untimely death on the future of later films as well as talked about the reason why a director hasn't been chosen yet.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Moritz expressed his thoughts about how the creative team would approach the new project. He said, "We're trying to do what we always do, which is try to come at it from a character point of view and figure out where the characters would go from here. I think the thing that's made The Fast and the Furious special is obviously we have incredible action and so on."

He added that it was the characters that gave heart and depth to each of the films. He said, "We're lucky that we have a lot of great characters. Unfortunately, we don't have Paul anymore. His character... has moved on. But we feel like there's a lot still to be mined. That's where we're starting."

It seems that the late Paul Walker and his character Brian O'Conner left a bigger legacy on the films than he would have dreamt about. Plans to continue with the franchise are still pushing through.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley talked about going forward even without Walker. She said, "He brought something very unique and very special to the franchise, but we've always tried to up the ante both with the casting and what the movies are about."

'Fast and Furious 8' may be in the works but as of writing, there is still no confirmation as to who will take on the role as director. So far, two directors have been highly cited - James Wan, director of 'Furious 7' and Justin Lin, who directed four previous films in the franchise. According to Cinema Blend, Moritz said that they will decide on a director after they've put down more effort on the screenplay's development process as this will determine the kind of filmmaker they need.

'Fast and Furious 8' will be released on April 14, 2017. Actors Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham are said to reprise their respective roles while further casting continues. 'Furious 7' became the most successful one among all the seven films in terms of ratings and box office earnings.