The Messy Production Timeline of Fast Forever (Fast & Furious 11)

February 2023: Vin Diesel states that the actor he has in mind for the villain of the final movie is Robert Downey Jr, who would be described the atitheist of Dom

April 2023: Fast & Furious 11 is confirmed with an April 2025 release date, Louis Leterrier is confirmed to return as director and Cristina Hodson is brought on board as a writer

May 2023: At the Rome Premiere of “Fast X”, Diesel states that there would be two more movies. Later Alan Ritchson states that there have been conversations of him returning in the 11^th film. 

Dwayne Johnson’s return to the series as Luke Hobbs is confirmed.

June 2023: Fast X Part II has a confirmed release date of April 4^th, 2025

August 2023: Louis Letterier confirmed that the eleventh film will be the final movie

January 2024: A report was released that the eleventh film will be have a lower budget going back to street racing and would feature a new antagonist instead of Jason Momoa’s Dante Reyes

February 2024: Diesel confirms that the film will the final instalment.

May 2024: Tyrese Gibson confirms that the film would be shooting in 2025 and seemed confirmed the return of franchise veterans Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot.

Letterier later confirmed that the film was delayed from 2025 to 2026 while he completes production on another project. 

Zach Dean was hired to write a new script.

August 2024: Franchise cast member John Cena says that he would love to return despite his character being killed off in “Fast X” that that the series tends to bring characters back from the dead

November 2024: Jordana Brewster states that she does not a have a timeline of the film’s production but hoped Mia would be more involved. 

Diesel uploaded an Instagram post teasing a March 2026 release and a reunion between him and Johnson’s characters

June 2025: At FuelFest, Diesel and Gibson arrived on stage with Cody Walker (brother of the late franchse veteran Paul Walker), Diesel stated that the film would be release in April 2027, it would return to LA, it would feature street racing and the return of Paul’s character Brian O’Conner.

September 2025: Jason Momoa said that he would love the come back but hasn’t received a script.

In an interview with MovieFone, Scott Eastwood confirms that he is aware of the film’s production

October 2025: A report released by the Wall Street journal claims that the film has no greenlight from the studio and no actors have signed deals. Universal is said to want the cut down the budget to 200 Million due to the underperformance of “Fast X”, otherwise the film would be cancelled. and that some cast members would have to have less screen time or removed all together, they also wanted to limit the number of stuntwork. 

Later that same month, Diesel claimed that the film’s budget issues were resolved and that production would begin by the end of the year.

December 2025: Diesel took to his Instagram page with a photo featuring him and football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, teasing that Ronaldo would have a role in the upcoming film. However it wasn't confirmed as an official confirmation. 

Diesel later stated that a script exists and would be titled “Fast Forever”.

January 2026: Diesel took to Instagram announcing that he film was retitled “Fast Forever” with a release date of March 17^th, 2028.

March 2026: Michael Leslie was brought on board as a new writer for the script. 

Diesel took to Instagram uploading an image of him with Sung Kang and Scott Eastwood, indicating that the two actors could return

June 2026: Scott Eastwood says he hopes to return for “Fast Forever”, while playing coy

July 2026: During an interview on the HappySadConfused Podcast, Alan Ritchson says that while he is part of the conversations between Universal and Diesel, the film could be too expensive to make and that production would need to have things resolved

August 2026: While celebrating 25 years of the franchise, Diesel claims that he had read the script for “Fast Forever” saying that it is the best script he has read in decades. However, Louis Letterier, while still attached as the movies director, stated that he hasn’t seen the script. 

Diesel would later confirmed that filming would begin in December.

September 2026: Franchise cast member Gal Gadot states that everyone involved are trying to make sure that the script is right to give the series as fitting conclusion.

Paul Walker’s brother Cody says that he has no interesting in returning in his brothers role and that if his late-brother’s character were to appear, it should be up to Paul’s daughter Meadow, he also indicated that the character would be brought back with AI. 

Charlize Theron, who is expected to return confirms that she is aware of the film but Diesel is secretive about the project. 

A Fast & Furious TV series was announced

October 2026: A report by the InSneider, the film has no director attached, meaning Letterier is no longer involved, no script, the report also states that when Diesel and Cody Walker attended FuelFest in 2025, Diesel kept announcing things despite Universal not green lighting the project and that film could see Diesel’s Dominic Toretto passing the torch to a younger generation with one of the actors considered being Charles Melton, who name had surfaced several Universal meaning but no offers had been made. 

John Cena begins to cast doubt on returning to the series and that his return was beyond his control as he and Diesel “don’t talk business”.

By the end of "Fast X", they really did back themselves into a corner with the cliffhanger at the end and a number of plotlines that have yet to be resolved. The movie failed to break even, it made over 700 million, but less than 800 million. So them going back to a smaller budget after that cliffhanger makes no sense.