Fast & Furious 7 Cast Rundown; plus, Our Fast & Furious Continuity Guide

The casting line-up for FAST & FURIOUS 7 is starting to look like The Expendables, and not only because Jason Statham is joining the cast, but because it's starting to be occupied by big names (we'll get to that a little later in the article). Actually, Lucas Black is not a big name, but he was the main protagonist in The "Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" which introduced Justin Lin on the director's chair of the franchise and successfully took it and and take off to evolve into this massively popular action movie franchise (with "Fast & Furious", "Fast Five", and "Furious 6"). Now, Black is back to reprise his role Sean Boswell from 'Tokyo Drift', joining Dominic Toretto and his team. Along with Jason Statham, the new cast include Djimon Honsou (best known for his roles in "Gladiator"and "Amistad"),  popular Indian and Bollywood film actress and model Deepika Padukone, female mixed martial artist and UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey, English actress Nathalie Emmanuel (best known as Khaleesi's interpreter in Game of Thrones) and Thai martial arts superstar Tony Jaa, best known as the star of the Ong Bak movies. There's a really strong rumor that Kurt Russel is also included in the cast, but because it is not yet officially confirmed, my best bet is that it's going to be a small role, or perhaps another teaser appearance for the next movie (just like Statham at the end of part 6). FAST & FURIOUS 7 is scheduled for a July 2014 release. [hit the jump to continue, and check out our Fast & Furious continuity guide]

The filming of Fast 7 has actually begun last August 2013, with the studio wanting to fast-track the movement of the franchise as they target for that July 2014 release date. On the other hand, the fans of Dwayne Johnson may not be happy to find out that there is a possibility that Johnson may have a smaller role in the movie since he will be having shooting schedule conflicts with him doing Brett Ratner's HERCULES movie. On the lighter side of it, the Fast and Furious franchise is already jampacked with lots of cast members, it would be nice to have the focus revolve around its other characters, than on Johnson.

As for Lucas Black, whose involvement in the new movie was announced this week, it makes sense that his character join the main team because at the end of Tokyo Drift, we do see his character meeting up with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). And in case some you are confused or not-so-well-familiar with the Fast & Furious continuity, the events of Tokyo Drift actually happens RIGHT AFTER Fast & Furious 6. Let me make a chronological enumeration of the franchise's sequence:, which includes the franchise's short films:

1 - The Fast & the Furious (2001)
2 - Turbo Charged Prelude (2003 Short Film)
3 - 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
4 - Los Bandoleros (2009 Short Film)
5 - Fast & Furious (part 4, 2009)
6 - Fast Five (2011)
7 - Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
8 - The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
9 - Fast & Furious 7 (2014)

The short film "Turbo Charged Prelude" is featured in some DVD editions of the first and second movie. The fabulously hot Minka Kelly (The Roommate, (500) Days of Summer) has her first screen appearance in this short film. The short film "Los Bandoleros" (Spanish for "The Outlaws"), which is directed, written, produced by and starring Vin Diesel, co-starring Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang, Tego Calderón, Don Omar and Mirtha Michelle reprising their roles from The Fast and the Furious film series, is included as a bonus on the Blu-ray and Special Edition DVD releases of "Fast & Furious"(2009). It was screened at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival in 2009 and has been released on the iTunes Store as a free download. These two short films are bridge videos that provide an extra connection from one movie to another. While "Turbo Charged Prelude" tells us of Brian O'Conner's (Paul Walker) fate after the first movie, "Los Bandoleros" gives us an introduction of how Toretto formed his new crew (before Fast Five).