Unfinished Script And Director Less, 'Fast Forever' Runs Into Troubles Months After Vin Diesel's 'Best in Decades' Claim

Published 10/07/2026, 10:46 PM EDT

May 28, 2019 - Los Angeles, California, U.S - Vin Diesel attends F. Gary Gray's star ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Category of Motion Pictures, on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, in Los Angeles.

The Fast & Furious franchise has launched cars into space, dragged bank vaults through city streets, and repeatedly treated gravity like an optional subscription. Apparently, finishing its finale may be the tougher stunt. Only months ago, Vin Diesel declared the Fast Forever screenplay the “best script” he had read in decades and admitted he was “still crying.”

Now, fresh reports claim the supposed final ride has no completed screenplay, Louis Leterrier may have exited, and Universal could already be staring at another release-date headache.

For a saga built around quarter-mile races, Dom Toretto’s farewell is spending an extraordinary amount of time stuck at the starting line.

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Fast Forever reportedly has no finished script or director

The latest twist comes from Jeff Sneider’s The InSneider, which reports that Fast Forever currently lacks a completed screenplay and that Louis Leterrier is no longer attached to direct. The claims remain unconfirmed by Universal, but they create a wonderfully strange contrast with Diesel’s August declaration that Michael Lesslie’s draft was the finest script he had encountered “in decades.”

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker Deutschlandpremiere von Fast & Furious Five Fast Five im Cinedom, Köln Foto:xP.xMertensx xFuturexImage

Even Leterrier had previously sounded uncertain. The Fast X filmmaker told Polygon that he had not read the screenplay Diesel was publicly celebrating, adding only that there would be an ending and expressing hope about his involvement. Money has been circling the project for even longer.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2025 that Universal wanted the sequel made for roughly $200 million after Fast X ballooned to around $340 million in production costs. The studio was examining fewer locations, reduced cast involvement, and scaled-back spectacle to keep Dom’s last lap financially manageable.

Sneider’s latest reporting also says Charles Melton has surfaced in internal discussions about a younger generation of Fast characters, though no offer has been made. The same report questions whether the currently announced March 17, 2028 release can survive if production slips deep into 2028.

Vin Diesel Confirms When the ‘Fast & Furious’ Finale Begins Filming After 4 Years of Development

Luckily for Universal, the family business is already finding another road onto television.

Peacock puts a live-action Fast & Furious series in gear

While Fast Forever wrestles with uncertainty, Peacock has officially ordered a live-action scripted series set inside the Fast & Furious universe and is eyeing a 2028 premiere. Vin Diesel will executive produce alongside Sam Vincent, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Jeff Kirschenbaum, and longtime franchise writer Chris Morgan.

Rome : Terrace of the Colosseum . Photo call Fast X . Pictured: Meadow Walker and Vin Diesel

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Mike Daniels, whose credits include Sons of Anarchy and Shades of Blue, will co-showrun with Wolfe Coleman. The pair will also write the pilot. Diesel originally teased a much larger television expansion during NBCUniversal’s May upfront presentation, saying fans had spent years asking for deeper stories involving legacy characters.

Peacock has formally confirmed one scripted project so far, keeping details about its plot and cast locked away. The franchise has visited television before through Netflix’s animated Fast & Furious Spy Racers, but Peacock’s project represents its first live-action episodic expansion.

‘Fast & Furious 11’: Cast, Story, Release Date, and Everything We Know About the Final Ride

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What do you think about the reported trouble surrounding Fast Forever? Can Universal still give Dom Toretto a worthy final ride? Let us know in the comments.

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Pratham Gurung

731 articles

If films shape personalities, Pratham was practically raised in a dark theater, pulling off twenty-four-hour movie marathons and falling into hour-long YouTube video essays at 3 a.m., his fascination with cinema never really having an off switch.

Edited By: Itti Mahajan

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