'Fast & Furious 8' cast, release date & spoilers: may come up with prequels & spinoffs after the upcoming trilogy

The Furious franchise won't return until 2017, but star and producer Vin Diesel says that the studio is already in early preparations to create prequels and spinoffs based on the already massive franchise, Variety reports exclusively.

"We’ve written out story lines for various characters," Diesel, who now also serves as executive producer, revealed. "We’ve been playing with it for a long time. It’s a very rich property and we’re committed to treating it with a lot of class."

While it was not yet disclosed which characters the team is eyeing on to explore, Variety reports that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hinted that he would be interested in delving into the world of Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs.

Forbes reports that with a large ensemble cast, it would not be difficult for Universal to expand the world of "Furious" to include that of its major characters—a move viewers are familiar with because of Marvel's superhero films. Another possible character to look into is Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw and the Shaw brothers, which the studio would probably be able to bring back if there were a spinoff to be created based on the two characters.

"We’re certainly in conversations about how we can expand the franchise now," Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley said. "It’s an ensemble cast and there’s room to bring characters in and out."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the franchise earned $1.5 billion this year with "Furious 7," and signed "Straight Outta Compton" director F. Gary Gray to helm the next installment, the first to be created without Paul Walker's main character.

"We have a director who is going to bring the darkness out and bring out the character," Diesel spoke of Gray, with whom he collaborated with on "A Man Apart" in 2003.

In addition, while the franchise banked on bigger and more fantastical stunts in the last films, the studio plans on bringing it back home to its true essence on the next film.

Jeff Shell, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, explained, "You can’t keep having every movie have bigger and bigger stunts forever and ever and ever. Eventually, you have to really focus on the story. We’ll still have big stunts but bringing in this amazing storyteller is going to be great."

Meanwhile, Shell promises three more "Furious" films to hit the big screen in the coming years, saying, "Vin has a vision in his mind for three more, so let’s get three more done and then see where we are from there."

"Everything has an end, so I don’t think our expectation is we’re going to have a hundred of them," he admitted. "To me ‘Fast and Furious’ has become no different than a beloved series that comes on every year."