-- Washington Irving
- The successors listed below are just for the Fast & Furious Franchise.
- Paul Walker was not going to win an Oscar, and similarly, his replacement should be a B+ actor at best, This franchise works best when everyone involved understands the movies are absurdist fantasy.
- Paul Walker was, however, a handsome dude. His successor needs to be a handsome dude.
- The Vin Diesel / Paul Walker relationship was the foundation this franchise was built on and nobody on the current roster of stars can slot in to fill that role, even with new additions like Kurt Russell and Jason Statham. We need an external candidate here, and this is that list.
- This is not a list of candidates to take over the Brian O'Conner role. That role was Walker's and should be retired. This is a list of candidates to play a new character to fill the role of yin to Diesel's yang.
- Fast & Furious is the rare franchise that seems to be getting better as it settles into its niche, meaning plenty of actors would love to take a role in it.
He's played a criminal good guy in "White Collar". He checks off all the boxes you'd need to step right in for Walker. The only problem is he feels like Diet Paul Walker, and audiences might feel like they were being fed a cheap substitute for the real thing. In the horrendous scenario where the producers keep the character Brian O'Conner and just try to recast it, I see him getting a call though.
We'd be shifting quite a bit away from Paul Walker with this choice and giving the movie an archetype it doesn't really have. With Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel providing the muscle, there's testosterone in spades already, so why not add a touch of pretty boy with Phillippe? I'd buy him as a trust funder who bankrolls the team's next job and wants a spot in the crew to oversee his investment. I'm just not sure the F&F producers want to mess with the recipe enough to broaden their casting net wide enough for him.
He might be ranked #8, but that's only because the scenario I'd like to see him cast in is a bit of a longshot. Look at that picture, and tell me you wouldn't buy that he's related to Paul Walker. If they've cast Kurt Russell in Fast 7 as Brian O'Connor's dad, why not bring in little brother O'Connor, possibly joining the team to avenge Brian's death? Admittedly, this entire plotline would exist on a knife's edge, ready to plunge into "tasteless" at a moment's notice, and is also dependent on the footage already shot for Fast 7. If you could somehow ensure that both those requirements are met, he'd rocket to #1 on this list.
A few years ago, he might have been too big a name, but not anymore. He knows ensemble casts (Sin City) and his recent resume is more than sparse, with him even drifting back to TV in 2014. He would be something of a shift from Paul Walker, as he's not really an alpha male and the series protagonist would definitely shift more towards Vin Diesel with his casting. Still, in a "Cheers"-style Shelley Long to Kirstie Alley type switch, it could give the franchise new legs.
I recently offered up Hunnam as a candidate for the next James Bond, but that's admittedly a long shot. The F&F movies, however, seem right up his alley, and would offer him a noticeable jump in profile without the added scrutiny that scared him off the 50 Shades of Grey adaptation. After his recent turn as the headliner in Pacific Rim , Hunnam's shown he doesn't mind big budget blockbusters.
The guy even sort of resembles Paul Walker if you squint just right. With recent bombs John Carter, Battleship, and Savages under his belt, he'd probably love a role in movies that are about as reliable as they come. The problem is, that string of flops actually makes him a risk for the movie to add. Walker wasn't known for much outside of F&F and his outside projects like Takers were (often inexplicably) quite successful. Kitcsch's track record could poison the well and draw some unsavory comparisons just upon his casting.
Dabbling in action movies that involve driving cars and playing off a typically angry co-star (2 Guns, The Italian Job), Wahlberg's been training for this role without even knowing it. He's even already starred with Dwayne Johnson (Pain & Gain). He's probably unlikely though, as he looks to be taking over the Transformers franchise with the next installment, and won't see a need to share top billing in another summer popcorn movie.
But as long as we're mining the Transformers franchise, let's pick up a guy who's probably out of a job with Michael Bay's "new direction" for giant, fighting robot movies. Pretty face? Check. Won't be stealing any scenes from the ensemble cast? Check. His only drawback is being probably the blandest entry on this list. Jumping back and forth between TV and movies, and hardly a full workload, means he'd probably jump at the chance to get back in a franchise.
None of his roles are exactly winning him any awards, to the point that he's been in two franchise murderers (Blade: Trinity, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and in one that was bad enough to kill it before it could spawn any sequels (Green Lantern). I contend that none of those are his fault. The guy just needs to break out of the superhero mold, and would probably love to hitch his cart to this franchise and have a reliable movie to do every year that keeps him in the A-list.
The leader in the clubhouse has to be Mr. Tatum. Cut from the same cloth as Paul Walker, Channing Tatum slots in with only a new name and backstory required. The lines don't even need to be changed for his character. Whatever you would've written for O'Conner works for Tatum's newcomer. Running a simple "Edit -> Replace" for O'Conner in the script gets you right back in business. If he thinks he's too big for this franchise, he need only look at his potential costar Dwayne Johnson and see that this franchise doesn't preclude you from being in your own projects elsewhere.