Paul Walker‘s “Fast & Furious” character will still have a major presence in the franchise’s seventh installment after his unexpected death last November, but co-star Kurt Russell still described the loss as “catastrophic” to the movie.
“They’re having to rewrite, they’re having to do whatever they’re having to do to deal with the situation. Listen, it’s catastrophic. It’s the worst thing that could happen to a movie,” Russell told the Associated Press at the Sundance Film Festival this week. “But it’s not as bad as what happened to Paul. So everything is in perspective. He was a terrific guy. And life is full of curveballs.”
Also read: Paul Walker Death: Porsche Was Traveling More Than 100 MPH, Coroner Finds
Russell was at the Park City, Utah festival promoting a documentary about his father’s minor-league baseball team, “The Battered Bastards of Baseball.”
The 62-year-old actor, who plays a father figure to Vin Diesel‘s character Dominic Toretto, said he had one day of filming left when a sports car Walker was riding in, alongside friend Roger Rodas, crashed and exploded near a charity event near Santa Clarita.
The “Fast & Furious” sequel went into a production hiatus to allow the cast and crew time to grieve, while producers and director James Wan put careful thought into how to proceed with the film.
Universal Studios, which is distributing the film, announced “Fast & Furious 7” will be pushed back from this summer to an April 10, 2015 release date.