Movies

Scott Eastwood Straps In For 'Fast 8'

THE LONGEST RIDE
By Angie Han

The Fast 8 family just keeps on growing. Scott Eastwood has just been set for the high-octane action sequel as a protégé to Kurt Russell's character, following Charlize Theron and Kristofer Hivju's casting last week. They join a cast of familiar faces including Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto, Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs, Michelle Rodriguez as Letty, and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw.

Universal announced the Fast 8 Scott Eastwood casting on Twitter.

Eastwood made his acting debut in 2006's Flags of Our Fathers, directed by his father Clint Eastwood. But it's really in the past couple of years that his career has been heating up. He had a supporting role in Fury and is now re-teaming with director David Ayer for this summer's Suicide Squad, and he has parts in Ben Affleck's Live by Night and Oliver Stone's Snowden coming up as well. His other credits include the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride.

Not much is known about Eastwood's Fast 8 role, other than his connection to Mr. Nobody. The covert ops leader played by Russell was introduced in Furious 7, where he recruited Dom and company to help the God's Eye computer program. In return, Mr. Nobody agreed to help Dom stop Shaw. Shaw was captured eventually (er, spoiler alert) but left alive, which is probably bad news for Dom. But it's great news for us, since it guarantees we'll see much more of Statham in action and more of Russell's mysterious badass character.

Although Dom remains at the center of the Fast and Furious series (especially now that Brian has been written out thanks to Paul Walker's death), the series has built up a deep bench of action stars surrounding him and the core members of his family. There's room for A-list actors (like Theron and Johnson) and star athletes (like Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano) and rising action stars (like Joe Taslim and Tony Jaa). It's a great next step for Eastwood, who's still building his resume.

Fast 8 is being directed by F. Gary Gray from a script by Chris Morgan. Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris are also expected to reprise their roles from earlier films. Shooting begins next month for an April 14, 2017 release date.

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