Just in case you somehow missed it, Furious 7 spent the weekend totally obliterating the international box office. It earned $384 million worldwide, in a single weekend. We already assumed that, even after the tragic death of star Paul Walker, more movies were on the way, and whenever Fast & Furious 8 drops, you can expect to see a familiar face.
According to Umberto Gonzalez, the next installment in the supercharged action franchise may bring back Eva Mendes. Right now this is obviously just an unconfirmed rumor, so make sure to take it with a grain of salt, but the report indicates that whether or not Mendes returns could have a big impact the plot of the upcoming sequel.
Mendes played undercover U.S. Customs Agent Monica Fuentes in 2 Fast 2 Furious, where she helps Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) take down a ruthless drug kingpin (Cole Hauser). She shows up briefly with Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in the post-credits stinger for Fast 5, but that’s the last we saw of her. Some thought she could pop up in Fast & Furious 6, but no dice.
We don’t know a ton about the story of Fast & Furious 8, but the franchise’s beefy lead Vin Diesel dropped two pieces of information a while back. He hinted that Kurt Russell’s Furious 7 character, the shadowy government agent Mr. Nobody, will play a larger role. In fact, he indicated that they signed Russell on for the latest movie with an eye on expanding his role next time out. Diesel also said that the action goes down in New York. (Or, at least, in part. These are films with a penchant for hopping around the globe and landing in exotic locations).
What role Eva Mendes might play in all of this remains to be seen. Gonzalez’ report also implies that, should Mendes not be down, they might do something aside from the NYC storyline, so it is easy to presume it is something major. If true, it’s going to be interesting to see how they bring Fuentes back. She was a character with close ties to Brian O’Conner but no one else in the crew, though Fast 5 provided an independent link. However, if Mr. Nobody and the government are involved, it’s entirely plausible that she might be involved in some capacity.
This is also a franchise that’s big on bringing back faces from the past, so it makes sense we could see Evan Mendes again. Vince (Matt Schulze) shows up in Fast 5 after not appearing since the first film; the same goes for Tej (Ludacris), who first shows up in 2 Fast; and now that the timeline has finally caught up to Tokyo Drift, Lucas Black’s Sean Boswell, who pops up in Furious 7, has reportedly signed on for more movies. They’ve also shown they are not afraid to get creative with the continuity to fit things in, so I have no doubt they’ll be able to get Mendes into the picture if she’s down.
