The Fast and the Furious franchise just keeps getting bigger. Ever since the original cast reunited for the fourth film in the series, Fast & Furious, each film in the series' box office gross has grown exponentially, making the franchise one of the most lucrative of all time. That trend looks to continue with the upcoming eighth installment, The Fate of the Furious, but will the series continue after that? Is Fate of the Furious the last Fast movie?
In many ways, it seemed like Furious 7 would have been a fitting farewell to the series. Franchise star Paul Walker died in a car crash during the movie's filming, which led to a tear-inducing CGI-created sendoff at the film's conclusion that featured his character literally driving off into the sunset. On a less-emotional and more practical note, the franchise also seems unlikely to ever match the insane $1.5 billion box office take of Furious 7, which was likely in part fueled by Walker's death (the previous high for the franchise was Fast & Furious 6, which grossed just over half that amount). But the franchise has proven larger than any one actor or character, and the decision was made to continue with The Fate of the Furious — and it's definitely not going to stop there, as there are plans for at least two more films after that.
Currently, Fast & Furious 9 and 10 are both sure things. The ninth movie has a secured opening date of April 19, 2019, and the tenth will hit theaters on April 2, 2021. The tenth film could potentially mark the end of the franchise, but even that is unlikely. Fast & Furious is now the highest-grossing franchise in Universal Pictures history, and it seems likely that the studio will want to continue milking it until it's no longer profitable.
There is already talk of spinning off several characters from the films into their own mini-franchises, creating a cinematic universe in the vein of Marvel. These talks are believed to be in the preliminary stages, as nothing has been announced about any spinoffs — though the smart money is on Dwayne Johnson's character Hobbs to receive his own series. If these spinoffs do happen, then the franchise could continue and go off in several directions even if the proper Fast & Furious does end with the tenth film, which again, there's no guarantee that it will.
So no, The Fate of the Furious is not the last movie in the franchise. There will be Fast & Furious movies for years to come, and the eighth movie could end up marking a new beginning for this blockbuster series.
