Paul Walker died on November 30, 2013 (Picture: WireImage)
Today marks 10 years since Paul Walker died at the age of 40, leaving his Fast and Furious co-stars devastated and Hollywood in mourning.
The actor, most known for his role as Brian O’Conner in the action franchise, died on November 30, 2013, after attending a charity event in California.
In the years since his death, his daughter, Meadow Walker, built a foundation in his name, while his castmates – including Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson and Jordana Brewster – have kept his character going in tribute.
On that tragic afternoon, the late star was in the passenger seat of his Porsche Carrera GT – driven by friend Roger Rodas – when the vehicle spun out of control, crashing into two trees and exploding in a fireball.
They were both pronounced dead at the scene, with the coroner’s report confirming Walker’s cause of death as combined traumatic and thermal injuries, while Rodas died of multiple traumatic injuries.
‘For an unknown reason, the driver lost control of the vehicle and the vehicle partially spun around and began to travel in a south-easterly direction,’ a report, obtained by the Guardian, read.
The actor died in a car crash at the age of 40 (Picture: WireImage)
‘The vehicle then struck a sidewalk and the driver’s side struck a tree and then a light post. The force of these collisions caused the vehicle to spin 180 degrees and it continued to travel in an easterly direction.
‘The passenger side of the vehicle then struck a tree and it then burst into flames.’
Over the years, Walker had starred in a string of huge films, including She’s All That, Joy Ride, Takers and Into The Blue – but his most notable role came as Brian O’Conner in the Fast and Furious franchise.
He appeared as the undercover police officer turned street racer in the first movie, The Fast and The Furious, in 2001 – starring opposite Diesel, Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez.
Following the overwhelming success, he went on to reprise his role in 2 Fast 2 Furious two years later, with Gibson, Ludacris and Eva Mendes, and also starred in sequels Fast & Furious, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6.
He first appeared as Brian O’Conner in The Fast and the Furious in 2001 (Picture: Universal)
The film became a huge success with film fans (Picture: Getty)
At the time of Walker’s death, filming had mostly been completed on Furious 7 with questions raised over how the movie would continue without him.
Production eventually resumed a few months later but film bosses pushed the release back by around a year, and changed the ending to honor the actor.
In the final cut, which arrived in cinemas in April, 2015, they used repurposed archived footage from previous outtakes, while his brothers, Cody and Caleb, stepped in to film some scenes, before their faces were replaced with CGI pictures.
VFX supervisor Joe Letteri spoke of their efforts in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining: ‘[Caleb and Cody] allowed us to scan them and work with them in the scenes, it really gave us something as close to Paul as we could hope for. That got us a long way toward being able to create a realistic character and performance.
‘We used a lot of Paul’s footage as reference, because as close as the brothers were in style and mannerisms, they just weren’t Paul when Paul played his character.
Paul and Vin Diesel went on to reprise their roles a number of times (Picture: Universal)
Paul died just before production on Furious 7 was completed (Picture: Universal)
‘There really wasn’t room to let anything slip. It was too important to complete the story in respect to Paul’s memory – to make sure that when you watched it, you didn’t think about any of the work that we did. If you were a fan, you were watching Paul’s performance and saying goodbye.’
The ending was slightly changed after the tragedy, with the last scenes showing Brian and Dominic Toretto (Diesel) racing before he drove away, with See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie playing over the top.
Screenwriter Chris Morgan previously spoke to Collider about the footage, sharing the original way that the film was due to end.
‘In regards to the story, the story actually was the same,’ he said. ‘The only difference is that whereas we let Brian and Mia and their family go off to just be a family and drop the action-y elements of their lives and stop risking everything when family is so important to them, otherwise we would’ve just continued with Brian learning and adjusting his character a little bit.
‘In the end of the movie, we were just leaning into a different adventure, but then with what happened to Paul, once that film came out and it did well and it was great, it could’ve been the end of the franchise.
‘We actually were thinking there for a minute, “Maybe we just leave this, go out on a good note and leave it alone,” and we all made an agreement to say that we wouldn’t revisit this unless we had a story that did something dramatically different, that was worthy of being done.’
Furious 7 broke records at the box office when it was eventually released, and went on to pass the $1billion mark in 17 days – with a worldwide total of more than $1.5bn.
Film fans will know that this wasn’t the last we saw of Walker’s character, as Brian made a very brief return in the closing scenes of 2021’s F9.
The character was seen driving his iconic blue Skyline into the driveway, ahead of a family dinner, in a subtle move that left audiences in tears.
Paul’s brothers stepped into his role to finish the film (Picture: WireImage)
His daughter, Meadow, appeared in the 10th film earlier this year (Picture: Getty)
Speaking to Metro.co.uk on the release, Diesel became emotional as he declared that the split-second moment was his ‘favorite’ of the entire blockbuster.
‘It’s probably my favorite frame of the movie, that moment you just described. It’s everything for me,’ he told us, before becoming emotional. ‘Pablo and I started 20 years ago with this film that Hollywood didn’t see coming and probably didn’t expect.
‘We created a brotherhood on and off screen, and there’s not a day that goes by… There’s not a moment that goes by while we’re filming the movie…
‘It’s everything. It’s everything.’
Vin shared that Paul would have been ‘smiling’ at his daughter’s cameo (Picture: Getty)
The latest outing of the Fast and Furious saga hit the big screen earlier this year, with a brief appearance from Walker’s daughter, Meadow.
Discussing her Fast X cameo in a conversation with E! News, he added: ‘I am proud of the fact that she so beautifully wants to honor her father.
‘As a father we hope that our children will want to honor us in that way.’
‘I think [Walker] is smiling,’ he added. ‘I think he’s smiling at her performance. I think he’s smiling at not only her performance, but at the fact that what him and I dreamed of – which was taking a saga to a 10th chapter – and to feel this love, the cherry on top is the fact that his daughter [has] a cameo.’
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Paul died on November 30, 2013.
