‘Fast & Furious 7′ Image & Video Roundup with Vin Diesel, Tony Jaa & Jason Statham

It’s an exciting time for the Fast & Furious series, which is going to be celebrating its 13th birthday when Fast & Furious 7 rides into theaters in Summer 2014.

Not only will the next installment unite the mostly self-contained narrative for Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift with the story covered in the past three films – set before Han (Sung Kang) makes his final trip to Japan – but the steering wheel is being taken over from Justin Lin (the series’ director since Tokyo Drift) by James Wan (The Conjuring, Insidious), who intends to drive into gritty 1970s throwback territory (think The French Connection, revisited by way of a Fast & Furious movie).

Part of what makes Diesel a proper action star for the 21st century is both his social media savvy and genuine affection for those around him, which is apparent in the Fast & Furious set images and videos – along with the many earnest inspirational messages and pics – that Diesel posts on a steady basis for the 50 million people that follow him on Facebook. For those who missed it last week, we’ve included one such clip – showing Diesel and martial arts sensation Tony Jaa training hard for F&F7 (and bonding in the process) – in addition to rounding up the more recent set photos posted by the Diesel engine… er, man.

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Where else but a Fast & Furious 7 video/image roundup can you see The Iron Giant practice high-flying kicks with the star of the Ong-bak trilogy (Jaa), have a drink with The Transporter (Jason Statham) and hug it out with Rain from Resident Evil/Ana from Lost/Luz from Machete (Michelle Rodriguez)? The way the Fast & Furious franchise has brought together such a wide variety and diversity in talent– on both sides of the camera – is a testament to how, exactly, this series will pretty soon turn 15 years old; and yet, it continues to gain in speed (in terms of box office and cultural relevance). No wonder Universal’s begun planning Fast & Furious 8 & 9, right?

The (surviving) cast from previous Fast & Furious movies are returning in Lap 7 (including, Dwayne Johnson, who’s now confirmed), in addition to the aforementioned newcomers; plus, respectable character actor types like Oscar-nominee Djimon Hounsou and fan-favorite Kurt Russell, in anticipation of Snake Plissken having a larger role in Fast & Furious 8.

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Fast & Furious 7 opens in U.S. theaters on July 11th, 2014.