Fast 7 Speculation: Jaa Vs Walker?

Since the passing of Paul Walker last year, Universal had a serious debacle on how to finish Fast & Furious 7 (2015).  At least 50% of the movie had to be reconsidered and rewritten.  Which makes sense when you lose one of your lead actors and the actor who has put in most hours in the Fast & Furious series.

And that fact, that Walker was such a prominent figure right from the start, leads me all the way back to the first movie.  In that movie’s finale, there are two supposed deaths at the end.  The first is the character of Jesse, shortly after is the slaying of Johny Tran.  In the end chase sequence, Diesel slams Tran’s partner off the road, severely injuring him.

On the other hand…

Walker continues the chase with Tran, stopping the car and unloading a clip into him.

Tran goes down and the FBI agent approaches and checks his pulse.  Tran looks dead as a dodo however Walker instructs bystanders to call 911.  And so we’re left wondering if Walker has actually killed Johnny Tran, the only real villain on the first movie.  It looked like he did.  And that leads us to Tony Jaa, whose character is rumored to be called “Louie Tran”.

Are we right to think that Jaa shows up in this movie to get medievial and settle a score, similar to Jason Statham’s character?

Considering that Tony Jaa has yet to shoot any of his scenes, this would explain to some extent the serious problems faced by the studio, if Jaa’s and Walker’s character arcs meet and are intrinsically linked, if one character wasn’t around to fill in the required scenes.  For my money, it’s quite possible that Brian O’Conner killed Johnny Tran — who looked deader than a doornail to me, and Louie Tran, brother or other kin, is here to take him out.  And I gotta believe that would be an awesome introduction for Tony Jaa, the right thing to introduce him as a bad guy.

Of course this is mere speculation.  And not on entirely strong grounds either, the name “Louie Tran” is still a rumor that pops up here and there, possibly with the IMDb at it’s source.  But I do hope Universal have ordered a darker script and this is part of that broth.