14 DAY TRIAL // While Universal is still discussing the fate of the “Fast and Furious” franchise now that the death of actor Paul Walker has shattered plans for release on schedule, a new report suggests that Walker was actually thinking of retiring at the time of the accident.
Walker and a friend Roger Rodas were killed in fiery crash outside Los Angeles on November 30. Rodas was behind the wheel of a Porsche Carrera and lost control of the car, smashing into a tree. The crash was followed by an explosion.
The cause of death has been established as trauma and burns, with police determining that speed had been a factor in the horrible accident.
Ronn Shikari and Vince Krause, both friends of the late actor living in Hawaii, say he had told them that he thought he “had accomplished all that he wanted from Hollywood and now believed he needed to devote himself to his daughter,” the Daily Mail writes, citing the two friends.
Walker had become a rich man, mostly thanks to the “Fast and Furious” franchise, with his friends now suggesting that he wanted out after the seventh installment, the one currently on hold until studio bosses decide what to do with his character.
“He was a family man and I know it hurt him to be spending so much time away from Meadow on location; he loved being with his daughter, she was his world,” Ronn Shikari says for the British tab.
“That’s why he wanted to retire from acting and talked to his family about it, as he’d achieved everything he wanted to achieve. He earned millions from the last Fast and Furious. The big reason he wanted to quit acting was so that he could spend more time with Meadow. It’s a shame that it could never happen,” he adds.
Walker was very close to Meadow, even describing her once as “the best partner I’ve ever had,” so, at least as far as his regret at not spending more time together goes, this seems like a believable story. Whether he really planned to retire at 40, we will probably never know with certainty.