--- title: Vin Diesel Pays Tribute to Paul Walker at Furious 7 Premiere description: The cast and crew worked to preserve Walker’s memory in the film canonical: https://time.com/3769314/vin-diesel-tribute-paul-walker-furious-7/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-02T17:46:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:44.292Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Vin Diesel Pays Tribute to Paul Walker at 'Furious 7' Premiere og:description: The cast and crew worked to preserve Walker’s memory in the film og:url: https://time.com/3769314/vin-diesel-tribute-paul-walker-furious-7/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c67ea59cb1f76b2/6987867555a859d54aa86a0d/vin-diesel-paul-walker-furious-seven-premiere.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Vin Diesel speaks about Paul Walker at his hand and footprint ceremony in Hollywood, California on April 1, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vin Diesel Pays Tribute to Paul Walker at 'Furious 7' Premiere twitter:description: The cast and crew worked to preserve Walker’s memory in the film twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c67ea59cb1f76b2/6987867555a859d54aa86a0d/vin-diesel-paul-walker-furious-seven-premiere.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vin Diesel Pays Tribute to Paul Walker at _Furious 7_ Premiere by [Jonathon Dornbush / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jonathon Dornbush / Entertainment Weekly Apr 2, 2015 5:46 PM UTC  Vin Diesel speaks about Paul Walker at his hand and footprint ceremony in Hollywood, California on April 1, 2015. Vin Diesel speaks about Paul Walker at his hand and footprint ceremony in Hollywood, California on April 1, 2015.Vin Diesel speaks about Paul Walker at his hand and footprint ceremony in Hollywood, California on April 1, 2015. by [Jonathon Dornbush / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jonathon Dornbush / Entertainment Weekly Apr 2, 2015 5:46 PM UTC While last night’s _Furious 7_ premiere was a chance to celebrate all of the work that went into the film, Vin Diesel took a moment to honor the memory of his late co-star Paul Walker. “Last year, it was really hard to come back to work,” Diesel said to the crowd. But the willingness of all his co-stars and director James Wan to return, as well as the support of Universal, inspired him to return to the project. “The studio was saying, ‘We feel your soul, and we’ll do whatever we have to do to honor your brother \[Paul\],” Diesel said. Walker died in a car crash late in 2013 during a pause in production, which left the then-incomplete film’s future uncertain. Diesel and the rest of the cast and crew eventually came back together. They worked to preserve Walker’s memory in the film, bringing on his brothers and a third actor to help complete Walker’s role as Brian O’Conner. And so finishing _Furious 7_ became a chance for Diesel and his _Fast_ family to honor Walker. “The movie is more than a movie,” Diesel said. “There’s something emotional that happens to you, where you walk out of this movie and you appreciate everyone you love because you just never know when the last day is you’re going to see them.” You can watch Diesel’s full speech, from video taken for [_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/04/02/furious-7-premiere-paul-walker-vin-diesel/70814958/). _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/02/vin-diesel-paul-walker-tribute-furious-7-premiere?xid=IFT-Trending) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com/)_._ ### These Are the 11 Best Bromances of All Time  Brian O'Conner and Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious Universal  Turk and J.D. in Scrubs Justin Lubin—ABC/Getty Images  Spock and Kirk in Star Trek CBS/Getty Images  Woody and Buzz in Toy Story Pixar/Disney  Cory and Shawn in Boy Meets World ABC/Getty Images  Sulley and Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc. Pixar/Disney  Chandler and Joey in Friends Danny Feld—NBC/Getty Images  Dr. John Watson and Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Robert Viglasky—Hartswood Films/Masterpiece  Alan, Stu, Doug and Phil in The Hangover Warner Bros.  Troy and Abed in Community Justing Lubin—NBC/Getty Images  Brian and Stewie in Family Guy Fox ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3769314/vin-diesel-tribute-paul-walker-furious-7/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3769314/vin-diesel-tribute-paul-walker-furious-7/"},"headline":"Vin Diesel Pays Tribute to Paul Walker at Furious 7 Premiere","datePublished":"2015-04-02T17:46:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:44.292Z","description":"“Last year, it was really hard to come back to work”","url":"https://time.com/3769314/vin-diesel-tribute-paul-walker-furious-7/","keywords":["remembrance","Vin Diesel","Paul Walker"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c67ea59cb1f76b2/6987867555a859d54aa86a0d/vin-diesel-paul-walker-furious-seven-premiere.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jonathon Dornbush / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c67ea59cb1f76b2/6987867555a859d54aa86a0d/vin-diesel-paul-walker-furious-seven-premiere.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Vin Diesel speaks about Paul Walker at his hand and footprint ceremony in Hollywood, California on April 1, 2015.","caption":"US-VIN DIESEL-HAND AND FOOTPRINT CEREMONY","creditText":"Vin Diesel speaks about Paul Walker at his hand and footprint ceremony in Hollywood, California on April 1, 2015.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3769314/vin-diesel-tribute-paul-walker-furious-7/","name":"Vin Diesel Pays Tribute to Paul Walker at Furious 7 Premiere"}}]}] ```