• Vin Diesel broke down in tears honoring the late Paul Walker at a 25th-anniversary Cannes screening of The Fast and the Furious
• Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow, now 27 — the same age her father was when the film was made — attended alongside Diesel, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez
• Diesel confirmed the franchise finale, Fast Forever, is coming March 2028, with plans to bring back Walker’s character Brian O’Conner
• Animated Alzheimer’s drama Tangles also premiered at Cannes, leaving a packed theater — and Seth Rogen — unexpectedly emotional
• Cannes 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most emotionally charged festivals in recent memory

It’s just after 2 a.m. on the Croisette, and Vin Diesel is crying in front of a thousand people — and nobody wants to leave.

The 58-year-old actor, best known for playing the unbreakable Dominic Toretto, stood on the stage of the Grand Lumière Theatre at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday night, tears streaming down his face, barely able to get the words out. The credits had just rolled on a special midnight screening of The Fast and the Furious — the 2001 street-racing blockbuster that made Diesel a star and introduced the world to the franchise’s now-legendary obsession with family. Beside him stood Meadow Walker, the 27-year-old daughter of his late co-star Paul Walker. And the crowd gave them four uninterrupted minutes of applause.

“I pray that in your life, you get to have a brother like Paul,” Diesel said, after a long, heavy pause. Michelle Rodriguez stood next to him, reaching up to wipe the tears from his face.

A Night That Was Always Going to Hit Different

The evening had started with Diesel in full showman mode. He hit the red carpet at 11:55 p.m. in a diamond-studded blazer embroidered with the words “Fast Forever” — a wink at the franchise’s upcoming finale — signing autographs for the fans who had packed the Croisette just to catch a glimpse of the cast. His publicist reportedly had to physically pull him away from the crowd so the night could begin.

Inside the theater, the energy was electric. “I’ve never seen a midnight screening like this in my whole life,” Diesel told the audience with a laugh. “It’s not like this movie hasn’t been out for a minute.” When festival director Thierry Frémaux tried to get things moving, Diesel waved him off with a grin: “F— the film. I’m only here once in my whole life.”

But this Cannes trip was always going to carry weight. Diesel’s history with the festival goes back to 1994, when he brought his self-financed short film Multi-Facial — made for $3,000, documenting his experiences as a biracial actor navigating New York City — to the Croisette. That screening caught the eye of Steven Spielberg, who cast him in Saving Private Ryan. Cannes, in a very real sense, is where Vin Diesel’s career began. Coming back as the face of a $7 billion franchise, 25 years later, with the ghost of his closest co-star hanging over the room — it was never going to be a light night.

“This is a film where brotherhood was introduced to our millennium, by myself and my brother Pablo,” Diesel said before the screening began. He gestured toward Meadow. “The person that was not going to let me come alone here to represent that brotherhood was Meadow Walker.”

The Moment That Broke Everyone

After the credits rolled, Diesel returned to the stage and the composure he’d held onto all evening finally gave way.

“It’s so hard for me to watch it,” he said, “because there’s so many moments in this movie that you see, that I see differently. The scene that you see, I see the moment Pablo told me he had a 1-year-old daughter.”

That daughter was sitting right beside him. Meadow Walker, now a model and actress who had a cameo in Fast X, had shared something with Diesel earlier that day that clearly stayed with him. “She said, ‘I’m 27, and I’m watching this film that my father made at 27,'” Diesel told the crowd. “And I thought, ‘How profound.’ Meadow has been such a source of strength, and I know he’d be so proud of you. And I love you forever.”

The two embraced on stage as the audience lost it.

“I can’t even believe you want to see me f—ing cry,” Diesel said at one point, almost laughing at himself through the tears. “You must want to go home.” No one did. When silence fell over the room, one audience member called out, “Crying is beautiful!” — and then someone began singing “See You Again,” the Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth ballad written in the wake of Walker’s death in November 2013 to give his character Brian O’Conner a farewell in Furious 7. Diesel looked out at the room and said, simply: “You all have good hearts.”

Walker died at 40 in a high-speed car crash in Valencia, California. He had been in the middle of production on Furious 7.

“I tried to save my brother,” Diesel told the Cannes crowd. “It was all in the script at first — this blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy would be a brother to me. As the years went by, he wanted us to continue the story.”

Fast Forever — and What Comes Next

The emotional night doubled as something of a victory lap for the franchise. Diesel confirmed that Fast Forever, the planned finale, is officially on track for a March 17, 2028 release — and that Brian O’Conner will be part of it, though Diesel hasn’t revealed how. “I couldn’t imagine this saga ending without truly saying goodbye to Brian O’Conner,” he said previously. Walker’s character has technically been alive in the franchise’s universe since his emotional sendoff in Furious 7.

“I’m gonna go and shed a tear real quick,” Diesel told the crowd, “but I just want you all to know — the only reason why we’re making the finale of Fast for 2028 is because of each and every one of you that has given us your hearts and your loyalty. You make us want to make you all proud.”

The franchise also has a future beyond the films: Peacock is developing multiple series set in the Fast universe, Diesel announced at NBC’s upfronts earlier this month. “Over the last decade, the fans have wanted more,” he said. “They wanted us to expand the legacy characters, their stories.”

Meanwhile, Tangles Left the Room Wrecked

If the Fast screening was the festival’s most unexpected emotional gut-punch, the Thursday night premiere of Tangles was its more deliberate one — and it hit just as hard.

On paper, the animated film looks like a comedy. The cast includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seth Rogen, Bryan Cranston, Bowen Yang, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, and even a voice cameo from Phil Rosenthal as a weary rabbi. But Tangles follows a Maine mother named Midge — played by Louis-Dreyfus — as she descends into Alzheimer’s, seen through the eyes of her rebellious daughter (Abbi Jacobson). The Salle Agnès Varda screening room was packed, and by the end of it, so were the tissues.

Even Rogen, who is rarely at a loss for words, seemed subdued when he introduced the film. “It’s an honor to be here. We hope you enjoy the film. Does anyone else want to say anything? You guys seem good. I love you,” he said — which, for Seth Rogen, qualifies as uncharacteristically quiet.

The film is currently for sale at Cannes and is already being whispered about as a potential player in next year’s animated Oscar race. Variety called it “honestly felt and highly affecting.” One person involved with the production summed up the post-screening mood plainly: “We all cried our eyes out.”

Three days into Cannes 2026, the festival’s defining mood isn’t glamour or controversy — it’s grief, memory, and the people we carry with us. Diesel said it best, even if he could barely get the words out: “Why do you have to show the world how human you are?”

The post Vin Diesel Breaks Down at Cannes Fast & Furious Screening appeared first on Cream.

• Jordana Brewster says Mia Toretto “gradually became more and more passive” across the Fast & Furious franchise
• She wants the final film, Fast Forever, to restore Mia’s agency and harken back to the original 2001 movie
• Brewster also called for less green screen and more practical stunt work in the finale
• She attended the 25th anniversary Cannes screening alongside Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow
• Fast Forever is set for a March 2028 release, with a Fast & Furious Peacock TV series also announced

Twenty-five years into playing Mia Toretto, Jordana Brewster knows exactly what she wants for the character’s final ride — and she’s not shy about saying it.

Speaking at a Kering Women in Motion talk at Cannes, just days after the emotional 25th anniversary screening of The Fast and the Furious, Brewster laid out her wishlist for Fast Forever — the 11th and reportedly final film in the franchise, currently slated for March 2028. The top of that list? Giving Mia her backbone back.

“In the final one I would like to harken back to the first one,” Brewster told Variety. “Mia gradually became more and more passive. I want her to drive her story and not react to everything else around her. Agency, that’s my biggest wish.”

It’s a candid admission from someone who’s watched the character evolve — and sometimes recede — over more than two decades. Brewster pointed to Fast Five as the high watermark for what Mia can be: pregnant, and still absolutely in the thick of it. “She’s helping them figure out what’s next and jumping off buildings and leading the guys as they’re pulling a safe through the streets of Rio,” she said. “It is literally being a part of the action and not just standing by.”

Back to Basics — and Back to LA

Brewster’s vision for Fast Forever isn’t just about Mia’s arc. She wants the whole film to strip back down to what made the original work. In a separate interview at Deadline’s Cannes studio, she was direct: “The stunts are very practical. There’s less special effects, it’s just less grand. And I think that’s what the audience is drawn to, and I kind of think that’s what we owe our fans.”

The franchise’s shift toward increasingly elaborate VFX — culminating in a Pontiac Fiero rocketing into outer space in F9 — is something Brewster feels cost the series something real. “We lost nuance,” she said plainly. Some of her favorite memories from the entire run are the practical sequences from the first film, shot alongside Paul Walker.

“I could rely on him. He loved driving. He was obsessed with cars. He knew how to make things look really cool,” she said. “It was fun to shoot it more practically. You don’t have to make up the adrenaline. There is something inorganic about being in front of a green screen. It’s like, the mountain is this way! It’s kind of cheating. There is a level of precision [when it’s practical]. It’s also fun with the crew because they’re leaning out of the car with us.”

She’d also love for the finale to come home — literally. “I really think it should be in LA,” she said. “LA was a character in the first one, and again, it’s going back to all the different cultures within LA. [Director] Rob Cohen shot LA so beautifully, so hopefully it’s set in LA as well.”

And beyond the action, Brewster wants room for something more grounded: Mia as a mom in the trenches. “There is something so hard about parenting boys,” she said with a laugh. “I’d love to see how she handles that, especially with all this gentle parenting. I’d love to see Mia lose her stuff on her kids. Hardcore, stripped mom dealing with teenagers.”

The Cannes Moment — and the Bittersweet Part

The Cannes screening itself — Vin Diesel’s brainchild, which he’d been working to make happen for a couple of years — was everything Brewster hoped for and more. She called the red carpet ascent at the Grand Lumière Theatre “the largest red carpet of my life.” And yet, she said, “I felt so comfortable. I had Meadow there and Vin. Michelle and I were dancing. There was something so joyful about it.”

But joy and grief walked side by side all night. Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow was there representing her father, and Brewster felt that weight from the moment she saw the itinerary. “I was reading it and realized that Meadow was standing in for Paul,” she told Variety, her voice catching. “That’s going to be beautiful.”

At Cannes, she was more direct about how the evening actually felt: “There was this huge contrast between arriving, and there was so much fanfare, and the steps are so iconic, so there was this high — and then it was also very bittersweet, because you see Paul again, and you remember.” She added: “Meadow was next to me, and I felt very protective of her. I think it’s important that he’s always present somehow.”

Walker’s presence loomed over the whole trip in the best possible way. Rewatching the original film at Cannes reminded Brewster of what the franchise was built on — and what it still owes to his memory. “What was so beautiful about the first one is that every character was fleshed out,” she said. “It’s really hard to do in an ensemble piece, and I think that’s what’s allowed its longevity.”

For Fast Forever, honoring Walker is non-negotiable. The script is still being finalized, but Brewster’s hope is clear: “Whether Brian is shown on film or if he’s just part of the reason they win or succeed, I’d like to see him be the champion of the whole thing.”

The screening also gave Brewster a fresh appreciation for her co-star of 25 years. “I don’t think I ever fully appreciated the depth of Vin’s character,” she admitted. “He takes a lot of time with the scripts. The integrity of the characters matter to him. Dude, now I get it. It does pay off.”

She’s equally warm about what Diesel has meant to her career specifically — including the fact that when an early draft of Fast X didn’t include Mia, he pushed to have the storyline rewritten. “Vin is really my brother,” she said. “He’s been so loyal for the entire franchise. It could have died a long time ago had he not championed it so fearlessly.”

What’s Next for the Franchise — and for Brewster

The week also brought a surprise announcement: at the NBCUniversal upfront presentation in New York, Diesel revealed that a Fast & Furious series is coming to Peacock, expanding the universe beyond the films. It was news to Brewster too, but she’s already thinking about the possibilities. A show centered on Mia and her kids, navigating life and legacy? “It’d be fun to have me and my two kids, and they’re getting into all kinds of trouble — it’s almost like karma,” she said. “It would also be a nice way of perpetuating the Brian character and his family legacy.”

In the meantime, she’s not standing still. Brewster is preparing to play a detective on the upcoming Prime Video series Bishop, and she’s finished writing her first feature screenplay — a creative milestone she’s clearly energized by.

But the Fast family remains her ride or die. “It’s kind of like the mafia,” she said. “We’ve all got each other’s backs, no matter what.”

She doesn’t know the Fast Forever plot yet — “I’m dying to read the script,” she admitted — but after 25 years, she knows what this franchise is capable of when it’s firing on all cylinders. And she’s ready to earn her stripes one last time. Just like she did on that set in Puerto Rico, years ago, when she tore her hand open mid-scene and refused to get stitches until the shot was done. Paul Walker noticed. “That’s all that mattered,” she said.

The post Jordana Brewster Wants Mia to Have Her Edge Back in Fast Forever appeared first on Cream.

• Jordana Brewster attended the 25th anniversary Cannes screening of The Fast and the Furious alongside Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Meadow Walker.
• She says Mia Toretto “gradually became more and more passive” and wants the character’s agency fully restored in Fast Forever.
• Brewster is pushing for more practical stunts in the final film, calling green screen work “inorganic” and “kind of cheating.”
• Fast Forever, the 11th and reportedly final film in the franchise, is set for a March 2028 theatrical release.
• Brewster also revealed she’d love the finale to be set in Los Angeles and for Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner to be “the champion of the whole thing.”

Jordana Brewster has been playing Mia Toretto for 25 years, and she has some very specific ideas about how the character deserves to go out.

Speaking at the Kering Women in Motion talk at Cannes — just days after the emotional 25th anniversary screening of The Fast and the Furious — Brewster was refreshingly direct about the evolution of her character and what she’s hoping to see in Fast Forever, the 11th and reportedly final film in the franchise, due in theaters in March 2028.

“In the final one I would like to harken back to the first one,” she said. “Mia gradually became more and more passive. I want her to drive her story and not react to everything else around her. Agency, that’s my biggest wish.”

It’s a candid admission from someone who has watched her character arc shift dramatically over a decade-plus of sequels. Mia started the franchise as a sharp, grounded presence — the moral compass of the Toretto family and the love interest whose choices actually moved the story. “What was so beautiful about the first one is that every character was fleshed out,” Brewster told Variety ahead of the screening. “Every person relates to a different character.”

She points to Fast Five as the high-water mark for Mia’s involvement. Pregnant during the events of that film, Mia was still right in the thick of it. “She’s helping them figure out what’s next and jumping off buildings and leading the guys as they’re pulling a safe through the streets of Rio,” Brewster said. “It is literally being a part of the action and not just standing by.”

That’s the version of the character she wants back.

Green Screens, Grief, and Getting Back to Basics

Beyond Mia’s narrative arc, Brewster has a clear vision for the filmmaking approach she wants in the finale — and it’s rooted in nostalgia for how the original was made.

“We lost nuance” as the movies got bigger, she acknowledged, with large-scale action increasingly handed off to VFX departments. Her favorite moments in the franchise came from the first film, doing practical work alongside the late Paul Walker.

“I could rely on him. He loved driving. He was obsessed with cars. He knew how to make things look really cool,” she said. “It was fun to shoot it more practically. You don’t have to make up the adrenaline. There is something inorganic about being in front of a green screen. It’s like, the mountain is this way! It’s kind of cheating. There is a level of precision [when it’s practical]. It’s also fun with the crew because they’re leaning out of the car with us.”

She’s also hoping the finale comes home — literally. “I really think it should be in LA,” she told Deadline at Cannes. “LA was a character in the first one, and again, it’s going back to all the different cultures within LA. Rob [Cohen] shot LA so beautifully, so hopefully it’s set in LA as well.”

The stunts are very practical in the original. There’s less special effects, it’s just less grand — and Brewster believes that’s exactly what audiences fell in love with and what the franchise owes its fans heading into the finish line.

A Bittersweet Night on the Croisette

The Cannes screening itself — Vin Diesel’s brainchild, years in the making — was a moment Brewster called “the largest red carpet of my life.” She walked the iconic steps alongside Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, producer Neal H. Moritz, and Meadow Walker, who stood in for her late father Paul Walker, killed in a car accident in 2013.

“And yet I felt so comfortable,” Brewster said. “I had Meadow there and Vin. Michelle and I were dancing. There was something so joyful about it.”

But joy and grief were running parallel all night. In an interview at Deadline’s Cannes studio, Brewster described the emotional whiplash of the evening. “There was this huge contrast between arriving, and there was so much fanfare, and the steps are so iconic, so there was this high, and then it was also very bittersweet, because you see Paul again, and you remember.”

Having Meadow by her side made it both harder and more meaningful. “I felt very protective of her,” Brewster said. “It was very bittersweet, but I think it’s important that he’s always present somehow.”

She shared a memory that captures exactly who Walker was on set — and who she wanted to be for him. During a shoot in Puerto Rico, she tore her hand open. “I knew that Paul was such a badass with stunts, and he would do everything himself, so I was like, ‘I need to keep it together, and I’m not getting stitches until we’re done with this scene.’ So I kind of earned my stripes.” Was Paul impressed? “Paul was. That’s all that mattered,” she said.

Rewatching the original at Cannes also gave Brewster a new appreciation for her co-star Diesel — someone she’d been acting alongside for a quarter century without fully clocking the craft he was bringing. “I don’t think I ever fully appreciated the depth of Vin’s character. He takes a lot of time with the scripts. The integrity of the characters matter to him. Dude, now I get it. It does pay off.”

That loyalty runs both ways. When Mia was written out of an early draft of 2023’s Fast X, Diesel personally pushed to have the storyline rewritten. “Vin is really my brother,” Brewster said. “He’s been so loyal for the entire franchise. It could have died a long time ago had he not championed it so fearlessly.” She ended up shooting a major action sequence with John Cena and a family dinner scene with EGOT legend Rita Moreno — “a pinch-me moment,” she called it.

What She Wants for Mia — and for Brian

Brewster isn’t just thinking about Mia the action hero. She wants to see the character’s domestic life get its due, too — specifically, what happens when the woman who survived street racing in Rio has to deal with actual teenagers.

“There is something so hard about parenting boys,” she said. “I’d love to see how she handles that, especially with all this gentle parenting. I’d love to see Mia lose her stuff on her kids. Hardcore, stripped mom dealing with teenagers.”

And when it comes to honoring Walker in the finale, she has a clear wish. The Fast Forever script is still being finalized, but Brewster is hoping that “whether Brian is shown on film or if he’s just part of the reason they win or succeed, I’d like to see him be the champion of the whole thing.”

There’s also the matter of a Fast & Furious series coming to Peacock, which Diesel revealed at the NBCUniversal upfront presentation — news that was apparently just as surprising to Brewster as it was to everyone else. She’s open to it, though, particularly as a way to keep Brian’s legacy alive. “It’d be fun to have me and my two kids, and they’re getting into all kinds of trouble — it’s almost like karma,” she said. “It would also be a nice way of perpetuating the Brian character and his family legacy.”

In the meantime, Brewster is keeping herself busy — she’s set to play a detective on the upcoming Prime Video series Bishop and has finished writing her first feature screenplay. But the finale is clearly on her mind.

“It’s kind of like the mafia,” she said of the Fast family. “We’ve all got each other’s backs, no matter what. They’re my ride or dies.”

After 25 years, one thing is clear: Jordana Brewster isn’t showing up to the finish line just to stand by.

The post Jordana Brewster Wants Mia to Have Her Edge Back in Fast Forever appeared first on Cream.

• Vin Diesel broke down in tears honoring Paul Walker at a special Cannes midnight screening of the original Fast and the Furious
• The screening marked the franchise’s 25th anniversary, with costars Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster also in attendance
• Meadow Walker, Paul’s 27-year-old daughter, joined Diesel on the red carpet and shared an emotional moment with him after the film
• Diesel revealed one of his three conditions for making the final Fast movie is reuniting Dom and Brian O’Conner onscreen
• Fast Forever, the franchise finale, is set for a March 17, 2028 theatrical release

Vin Diesel wasn’t planning to cry in front of a sold-out crowd at the Cannes Film Festival. But then the credits rolled on The Fast and the Furious, and 25 years of memories — and grief — came flooding back all at once.

The actor stood at the microphone inside the Grand Lumière Theatre just after midnight on May 13, having just watched himself and his late best friend Paul Walker fall into a brotherhood on the big screen for the very first time. And he just couldn’t hold it together.

“I can’t even believe you want to see me fucking cry,” Diesel told the crowd, visibly emotional.

Then came the words that had the entire theater reaching for tissues: “I pray that in your life, you can have a brother like Paul.”

A Night 25 Years in the Making

Cannes selected The Fast and the Furious for a special midnight screening to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary — a fitting tribute to a movie that, when it opened in the summer of 2001, nobody could have predicted would launch one of Hollywood’s most profitable franchises ever. Directed by Rob Cohen and co-written by David Ayer, the original film grossed $207 million worldwide on a reported $38 million budget. What followed was 11 films, a spinoff, and more than $7 billion at the global box office.

Diesel arrived at the Palais des Festivals at 11:55 p.m., stepping out of his car to walk the red carpet in a diamond-encrusted black blazer with “Fast Forever” — the name of the upcoming franchise finale — embroidered on the back. He signed autographs, struck poses for the wall of photographers, and worked the crowd on the Croisette with the energy of someone who knew exactly what the night meant. Joining him were costars Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster, franchise producer Neal H. Moritz, and NBCUniversal Entertainment chairman Donna Langley.

And then there was Meadow Walker.

Paul Walker’s 27-year-old daughter walked the red carpet alongside the cast, and her presence made the entire night feel like something more than just an anniversary celebration. It felt like a reunion with someone who couldn’t be there.

“The Best One’s Still in the Can”

Before the screening began, Diesel took the mic to address the packed house — and stayed on it for a while. He joked with Cannes director Thierry Frémaux about the unexpectedly massive crowd: “Thierry, where did you get everyone? I’ve never seen a midnight screening like this in my whole life. It’s not like this movie hasn’t been out for a minute.”

He recalled something Frémaux had told him over lunch earlier that day — that Diesel had first come to Cannes 31 years ago as the writer, director, and star of his 1995 short film Multi-Facial, carrying a laundry bag as a suitcase, unknown to the world. “You said, ‘The reason why it’s so special that you’re here now is because, in my mind, you, Vin, were born in Cannes,'” Diesel recounted.

The crowd shouted “we love you” back at him. He got laughs. He got applause. At one point, nearing 12:30 a.m. and aware he was monopolizing the mic, he cracked: “Fuck the film. I’m only here once in my whole life.”

But when he turned to talking about Paul, the room shifted.

“It wasn’t on the script at first that this blond-haired, blue-eyed guy would be a brother to me,” Diesel said. He described how, after every premiere, Walker would quietly pull him aside. “After every premiere, he’d sit with me — no one else could be around. He just would walk off with me and whisper into my ear, ‘the best one’s still in the can.'”

“It’s so hard for me to watch it,” Diesel continued, “because there’s so many moments in this movie that you see, that I see differently. The scene that you see, I see the moment Pablo told me he had a 1-year-old daughter.”

That daughter was sitting in the theater with him.

Meadow Walker and a Moment That Stopped the Room

After the film ended, Diesel pulled Meadow close and shared what she had told him earlier in the day. “She said, ‘I’m 27, and I’m watching this film that my father made at 27,’ and I thought, ‘How profound.'”

He wiped a tear from her face. “Meadow has been such a source of strength,” he told the crowd. “And I know he’d be so proud of you.”

Meadow briefly addressed the audience as well, saying the cast had been a “source of strength” for her in the years since her father’s death. Paul Walker died in November 2013 at age 40 in a car accident, before he could finish filming Furious 7. That film was completed using archival footage and his brothers Caleb and Cody as body doubles, and released in 2015 with the Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa tribute “See You Again.”

Rodriguez and Brewster were right there with them, all of them wiping tears as the sold-out audience rose for a four-minute standing ovation.

The bond between Diesel and Meadow is one that’s been quietly documented for years. Diesel is her godfather, and the two have remained close since Paul’s death. He and his partner Paloma Jiménez even named their youngest daughter Pauline in tribute to his late costar. Meadow, for her part, runs the Paul Walker Foundation in her father’s honor and made a cameo appearance in 2023’s Fast X.

One More Ride — and Brian O’Conner Is Coming Back

The night wasn’t only about looking back. Diesel made clear that the past is fuel for what’s coming next.

“The only reason why we’re making the finale of Fast for 2028 is because of each and every one of you that has given us your hearts and your loyalty,” he told the crowd. “Each and every one of you that has felt like you were a part of our family — you make us have to continue. You make us want to make you all proud. What you’re gonna watch tonight is the beginning of one word, and that word is love.”

Fast Forever, the planned franchise closer, is scheduled to hit theaters on March 17, 2028. Louis Leterrier, who directed Fast X, is set to return, with Michael Lesslie aboard as screenwriter. And Diesel has already hinted at what fans most want to hear: Brian O’Conner will be part of the ending. At Fuel Fest in June 2025, he revealed his three conditions for making the finale — bringing the story back to L.A., returning to street racing culture, and reuniting Dom with Brian.

How exactly that reunion happens — whether through archival footage, the Walker brothers, or something else entirely — remains one of the most anticipated questions in the franchise’s history.

But on this night in Cannes, with Meadow Walker beside him and Paul’s face on the screen, Vin Diesel wasn’t thinking about box office or release dates. He was thinking about a blond-haired guy who used to whisper in his ear after every premiere and tell him the best was still to come.

The post Vin Diesel Cries for Paul Walker at Cannes Fast Screening appeared first on Cream.

• Vin Diesel delivered an emotional speech honoring Paul Walker at a special Cannes midnight screening of the original Fast and the Furious
• Paul’s daughter Meadow Walker, 27, attended alongside Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster for the franchise’s 25th anniversary
• Diesel wiped away tears and embraced Meadow in a long hug, telling her Paul would be “so proud” of her
• Meadow shared a striking detail with Diesel: she is now the same age her father was when he made the film
• Diesel confirmed the final Fast film, Fast Forever, is set for March 2028, with plans to reunite Dom and Brian O’Conner

Vin Diesel couldn’t hold it together — and nobody could blame him. Standing inside the sold-out Grand Lumière Theatre at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, May 13, with his late co-star Paul Walker’s daughter by his side, Diesel broke down in tears as he addressed the crowd after a special midnight screening of the original The Fast and the Furious. The film was shown to mark the franchise’s 25th anniversary, and the emotion of the night hit like a freight train.

“I pray that in your life, you can have a brother like Paul,” Diesel said, pausing to collect himself before continuing. “I can’t even believe you want to see me f**king cry.”

He wasn’t alone in those tears. Co-stars Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez were both wiping their eyes, as was Meadow Walker — Paul’s 27-year-old daughter, who made the rare red carpet appearance in a stylish olive green ruffled gown. The audience responded with a four-minute standing ovation.

A Night That Was Always Going to Be Emotional

The midnight screening was already a lot to process. Cannes calling a street racing movie a “classic” after 25 years is one thing. Watching the bond between Diesel and Walker play out on the big screen — knowing what came after — is something else entirely.

Diesel, 58, admitted as much. “It’s so hard for me to watch it because there’s so many moments in this movie that you see, that I see differently,” he told the packed theater. “The scene that you see, I see the moment Pablo told me he had a 1-year-old daughter.”

That 1-year-old daughter was Meadow. She was 15 when Paul died in a car accident in November 2013 at age 40. Now she was sitting in that same theater, watching her father at 27 — her own age — fall into one of cinema’s most unlikely brotherhoods.

She told Diesel about it earlier in the day, and he couldn’t let it go. “She said, ‘I’m 27, and I’m watching this film that my father made at 27,’ and I thought, ‘How profound,'” Diesel shared with the crowd.

He also dug up a memory that felt like it belonged only to him and Paul. “After every premiere, he’d sit with me — no one else could be around,” Diesel recalled. “He just would walk off with me and whisper into my ear, ‘the best one’s still in the can.'” Then, almost to himself: “It wasn’t on the script at first that this blond-haired, blue-eyed guy would be a brother to me.”

Meadow Was Never Going to Let Him Do This Alone

Before the screening even began, Diesel made sure the crowd knew exactly who was in the room. After introducing Rodriguez and Brewster, he turned his attention to Meadow.

“This is a film where brotherhood was introduced to our millennium, by myself and my brother Pablo,” he said. “And the person that was not going to let me come alone here to represent that brotherhood is Meadow Walker.”

The applause was immediate and thunderous. Diesel looked like he was barely keeping it together. “I’m gonna go and shed a tear real quick,” he said — and then proceeded to do exactly that for the next several minutes.

After the film ended, Diesel pulled Meadow in for a long hug. He wiped a tear from her face and told her directly: Paul would be “so proud” of her. Meadow, for her part, called the Fast cast a “source of strength” in her life — a sentiment that feels even heavier when you consider she’s known most of them since she was a child.

Diesel is Meadow’s godfather, and their bond has been one of the most consistent threads running through the Fast franchise’s off-screen story. He walked her down the aisle when she married Louis Thornton-Allan in the Dominican Republic in October 2021, standing in for Paul. A source told Us Weekly that same year that Meadow “counts Vin and his kids as family and will talk to them on days she’s struggling.” Diesel and his partner Paloma Jiménez even named their youngest daughter Pauline — now 11 — in tribute to his late co-star.

Meadow has also carved out her own place in the Fast universe. She appeared in 2023’s Fast X as a flight attendant, and she keeps her father’s memory alive through the Paul Walker Foundation, which she founded. Jordana Brewster also shared “family portraits” from the Cannes photo call on Instagram, captioning them with a nod to the anniversary: “not bad for 25.”

A Night Full of Moments — Including Some Lighter Ones

The evening wasn’t all tears. Diesel hit the Palais des Festivals red carpet at 11:55 p.m. in a diamond-encrusted blazer with “Fast Forever” embroidered on the back, working the Croisette crowd with the kind of energy that made him a movie star in the first place.

Inside, he grabbed the mic before the screening and riffed on the absurdity of the packed house. “Thierry, where did you get everyone?” he joked, addressing Cannes director Thierry Frémaux. “I’ve never seen a midnight screening like this in my whole life. It’s not like this movie hasn’t been out for a minute.”

He also shared something Frémaux had told him over lunch that clearly meant a great deal. “You said to me, ‘Vin, you came here 31 years ago as a director, writer and actor of a short film. When you came, you had a laundry bag as a suitcase. No one in the world knew you. The reason why it’s so special that you’re here now is because, in my mind, you, Vin, were born in Cannes.'”

The crowd was so warm, so loud, so unwilling to let the moment end that Diesel eventually acknowledged he was pushing it — and leaned in anyway. “Fuck the film,” he joked. “I’m only here once in my whole life.”

The franchise he’s spent 25 years building has earned over $7 billion at the worldwide box office. The original 2001 film, directed by Rob Cohen and co-written by David Ayer, made $207 million on a $38 million budget. By the time Fast X came around in 2023, the budget had ballooned to over $300 million. Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious both crossed $1 billion globally.

What Comes Next — Including Brian O’Conner

The Cannes celebration arrives as the franchise heads toward its finish line. Fast Forever, the 11th and supposedly final mainline film, is set for March 17, 2028, with director Louis Leterrier returning and Michael Lesslie aboard as screenwriter.

Diesel has been clear about his conditions for making it. “The studio said to me, ‘Vin, can we please have the finale of Fast and Furious?'” he told fans at Fuel Fest last June. “I said, ‘Under three conditions.’ First, to bring the franchise back to L.A. The second thing was to return to the car culture, to the street racing. The third thing was reuniting Dom and Brian O’Conner.”

How exactly Brian returns — Paul’s character is still technically alive in the Fast universe, though Furious 7 gave him a tearful sendoff — hasn’t been spelled out. But Diesel has said he couldn’t imagine ending the saga without truly saying goodbye to Brian O’Conner.

And beyond the movie, the Fast world is expanding further: at NBC’s upfronts on May 11, Diesel announced that Peacock is launching four shows set in the Fast and Furious universe.

But on Wednesday night in Cannes, none of that was the point. The point was a father who made a movie at 27, and a daughter who is now 27 watching it — and the man who loved them both standing between those two moments, trying not to fall apart.

“Meadow has been such a source of strength,” Diesel said, his voice catching. “And I know he’d be so proud of you. I love you forever.”

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