Paul Walker died in 2013 after being involved in a car accident at a charity event. The Fast & Furious star was a passenger in the 100mph crash, and his passing threw Furious 7's production into chaos.
Work was already underway on the movie, and the decision was made to both continue work and figure out how to pay a respectful farewell to the actor and his character, Brian O'Conner. A combination of Walker's brother and VFX helped add scenes for that send-off, and Furious 7 ended with Brian and Dominic Toretto driving side-by-side before parting ways to the tune of "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.
As you might expect, Furious 7 once had a very different ending. In Barry Hertz's new book, "Welcome To The Family," we learn just how different the 2015 movie—which grossed over $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office—was once set to be.
"Originally, [Furious 7] ended with the whole crew back at Neptune’s Net, the Malibu seafood joint off Pacific Coast Highway where Brian and Dom had bonded in the first movie, celebrating the successful retrieval of the “God’s Eye” MacGuffin that Jason Statham’s villain, Deckard Shaw, was pursuing."
"But instead of giving the device back to the mysterious government agent Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), who had just awarded the team congressional commendations, Dom crushes the God’s Eye under his boot, saying that it was too powerful for any one person to possess. The team then roars off onto the PCH, with the smiling Dom crumpling the commendation into a ball and tossing it out the window as the score swells and the end credits roll."
Hertz later added that part of the ending featured "the team [picking] their next destination by throwing a knife at a nearby map, letting 'fate' decide."
Unlike this version, the eventual theatrical cut of Furious 7 wrapped up with The God's Eye still in the wind. That obviously came back to haunt Dom and company in The Fate of the Furious and Fast X, something that wouldn't have been possible had it been destroyed.
Plans to make Dom and his crew into more legitimate heroes were also dropped, retaining their outlaw status. It's unclear whether Walker's death was the only reason for these alterations, as the story may have still evolved even without Brian's story concluding.
Work continues on the eleventh and final Fast & Furious movie, though it does appear to have hit something of a roadblock. Whether it will reference or feature Brian in any way is TBD, but we'd bet on Walker's character having a presence of some sort.