Paul Walker's death won't affect Fast & Furious 7 after all - director James Wan and Universal have found a way for his character, Brian O'Conner, to have a happy ending. Speculations were rife about whether or not the character will still show up in the new movie after the actor's tragic death by car accident. The Hollywood Reporter just reported that Wan and Universal have now made a decision on how to end his The Fast and the Furious run.

Brian O'Conner won't die. The well-loved character, who has been the anchor of the entire franchise since the first film came out in 2001, will retire. Walker had in fact already started working on scenes for the seventh installment of The Fast and the Furious movie franchise and left behind quite a bit of film footage with him in it. About half of the actor's scenes had been shot by the time of his death.

Director Wan, Jeffrey Kirschenbaum of Universal, and writer Chris Morgan have come up with a plan to make use of the actor's existing Fast & Furious 7 footage and simply change the story in a way that the character can leave but still keep the franchise intact. The team will thus have to create more scenes during the movie's eight-month release delay.

Continuity won't be a problem for the movie team's change of plans however, as O'Conner was already shown to be retiring for his wife and child in the last movie, Fast & Furious 6. The former undercover cop turned rogue will have a happy ending, unlike the actor who played him.

Paul Walker died last November 30, 2013 in a tragic car accident. The founder of the non-profit organization Reach Out Worldwide, he was killed with friend Roger Rodas when the Porsche they were riding in crashed into a pole and tree on Hercules Street in Santa Clarita, California.