The Original FURIOUS 7 Ending Revealed a Decade After Paul Walker’s Death
It’s been a full decade since the Fast & Furious franchise was rocked by the tragic death of Paul Walker. The actor died in a car crash on November 30, 2013, during a break from filming Furious 7, and the loss changed the course of the franchise forever.
What was supposed to be another high-octane sequel became an emotional turning point, with production halted and the story rewritten to give Walker and his character, Brian O’Conner, a heartfelt sendoff. Now, thanks to a new book, fans are learning what Furious 7 was originally supposed to look like before tragedy struck.
In Barry Hertz’s newly released behind-the-scenes book Welcome To the Family (via Screen Rant), the original ending of Furious 7 has been revealed, and it would’ve taken the franchise in a very different direction.
“Originally, [Furious 7] ended with the whole crew back at Neptune’s Net, the Malibu seafood joint off Pacific Coast Highway where Brian and Dom had bonded in the first movie, celebrating the successful retrieval of the ‘God’s Eye’ MacGuffin that Jason Statham’s villain, Deckard Shaw, was pursuing.”
“But instead of giving the device back to the mysterious government agent Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), who had just awarded the team congressional commendations, Dom crushes the God’s Eye under his boot, saying that it was too powerful for any one person to possess.
“The team then roars off onto the PCH, with the smiling Don crumpling the commendation into a ball and tossing it out the window as the score swells and the end credits roll.”
Apparently, the original finale would’ve also included the team chucking a knife at a map to let “fate decide” where they’d go next.
Following Walker’s death, Universal and the filmmakers restructured the movie completely. The final version of Furious 7 ends not with a new mission, but with Brian retiring from the crew to settle down with Mia and their family.
The closing sequence shows Dom driving away, only for Brian to catch up for one last ride side-by-side. Dom reflects on their time together before they go their separate ways, metaphorically and literally.
Unfinished scenes were completed using Caleb and Cody Walker, with Paul’s face digitally added using VFX and past footage.
While that alternate ending would’ve had huge ramifications for the franchise, especially since the God’s Eye comes back in The Fate of the Furious and Fast X, what we ultimately got gave fans a moment of emotional closure that transcended action spectacle.
It’s fascinating to think about what could’ve been. The original ending had weight and setup for future chaos, but the version we saw gave the franchise something far more valuable, a meaningful farewell to one of its original stars.