Vin Diesel Hints at Big Apple for Fast and Furious 8

The news comes from the Instagram account of star Vin Diesel. The actor, who has played Dominic Toretto in every film but 2 Fast 2 Furious (he had an uncredited cameo in Tokyo Drift, let's not forget), sent out the image over the weekend showing the film's traditional logo over the New York skyline. The Empire State Building sits at the right side of the image.

There's more than a hint about the next film's main location. Diesel continues to claim that the series' ninth installment will land in April of 2017, although this latest bit of news isn't nearly as specific. In April of 2015, Diesel trumpeted a theatrical debut of April 14, 2017, while speaking to attendees at Universal Pictures' CinemaCon. It seems strange to omit the full date in favor of the month when we've known what's up for nearly a year now.

It's also interesting to see that Diesel's Instagram simply refers to the movie as Fast 8, which marks yet another evolution of the series' naming strategy. The Fast and the Furious was the first film, followed by the unforgettable 2 Fast 2 Furious, then Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Things got confusing after the fourth installment, which was simply called Fast & Furious, then Fast Five arrived. Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7 followed, and now it looks like we're back to just "Fast." The last time a naming scheme was this convoluted, Johan de Nysschen was at Infiniti.

Of course, we'd advise you take this news with some salt. Diesel may be the series' undisputed lead, but he's far from an official spokesman for Universal. Still, the move to New York should prove an interesting one, considering the way the films have so far destroyed Los Angeles, Tokyo, Rio, London, and Abu Dhabi.