Hot off the presses, Universal Pictures has announced that it will release Fast & Furious 7 on Friday, July 11, 2014.

Justin Lin, director of 4 of the existing 6 Fast & Furious franchise of movies, will not be returning for the 7th installment of the long-running and profitable movie series – the latest, Fast & Furious 6, is scheduled to open May 24.

To replace him, the studio tapped James Wan (Insidious, Saw) to direct Fast & Furious 7, with Neal H. Moritz and Vin Diesel returning as producers.

I think it’s a bit too soon for the next movie in the franchise, with a year between 6 and 7. At least give audiences a couple of years to forget the last one before releasing another. In the past, the studio has released films in the franchise about once every 2 to 3 years on average.

As for plot, the email announcement Universal sent out just reads:

Continuing the global exploits in the franchise built on speed, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker lead the returning cast of FAST & FURIOUS 7, which will be released by Universal Pictures on July 11, 2014.

That’s it! The noticeable absence of Dwayne Johnson’s name in the above sentence might mean something, unless I just missed an announcement that he won’t be returning for #7.

There was news that shooting of FF7 might conflict with Johnson’s shooting of Hercules, which also begins production this summer.