Vin Diesel

This has been a pretty busy week for fans of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Not only did we get an official title for the eight film in the series, The Fate of the Furious  —  which, for inexplicable reasons that continue to haunt the internet, did not spell ‘fate’ as ‘f8’  —  we also got our first glimpse at new footage courtesy of a trailer tease and promises of a full theatrical trailer on Sunday evening.

We’ve done our waiting, and now it’s finally here — feast your eyes on the first official Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer! All of our favorites are back, plus a few new faces and one very big tentacle monster. This trailer keeps the rock music vibe of the first movie alive with their choice of Sweet’s “Fox on the Run,” and it looks just as fun, if not even more fun, than its predecessor.

Are you sitting down? You might want to be seated when you read this. You should also be warned of potential spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, so if you’re the sort of Marvel fan who likes to go in knowing as little as possible (how do you live without the internet??), you might not want to read on. But if you’re curious to learn more about Baby Groot, James Gunn has revealed something very interesting, and a little sad?

“I am Groot.” With the exception of one small variation, this is the only thing we hear from Vin Diesel’s Groot throughout Guardians of the Galaxy. What makes this such a funny running joke isn’t the fact that he only says the one phrase, though; it’s the fact that Rocket Raccoon understands him perfectly, unearthing complicated sentiments and emotions from three simple words. Translating Groot’s dialogue would be like un-bleeping the profanity in an episode of South Park: you pretty much already know what Groot is saying, and the jokes just work better this way.

The mystery that plagued the internet for one whole day has now been solved.

You’ve probably heard that Vin Diesel recently became the first celebrity to reach over 100 million likes on Facebook — a level of validation that mere mortals such as you or I may never know. A lot of those likes are the result of Diesel’s commitment to his fans and to sharing photos from his new films, like the latest pic from the set of Fast 8, which features your new favorite BFF pairing: Diesel and Dame Helen Mirren.

Fact: Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the best films of 2015, if not of all time. Fact: Charlize Theron is an amazing actress who’s pretty great at playing not-so-nice characters and stone cold badasses. Fact: Fury Road proved that she could be even more badass when you put her behind the wheel, leading us to daydream about seeing Theron in a Fast and Furious movie. So here’s an even better fact: Fast 8 might be making those dreams come true.

In what must take the prize for Most Misleading Headline of this still-young year, Nina Dobrev (of The Vampire Diaries fame) and Ruby Rose (of Orange Is the New Black fame and worldwide lesbian idol-worship) have entered talks to shoot a new xXx movie with Vin Diesel...

With James Wan not returning to direct the next installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, Furious 8 is in desperate need of someone to sit behind the camera before Vin Diesel decides to just do the job himself. But it looks like Universal has narrowed their options down to just a few directors, each of them interesting choices in their own right.

The Fast and Furious franchise wouldn’t be where it is now without Vin Diesel. The films didn’t even kick into high gear until Diesel returned for 2009’s Fast and Furious, and the box-office numbers have been climbing astronomically since then. To say Universal owes Vin Diesel a gigantic debt of gratitude is an understatement, but exactly how much do they owe him? Would they actually let Diesel, who has little experience directing a movie let alone directing a movie on the scale of a Fast and Furious film, behind the camera of Fast and Furious 8? According to a new report, this may be what Vin Diesel wants and Universal is terrified.

Fast and Furious 7 just made Universal over $1.5 billion and when you make people that much money, you can pretty much do whatever you want for your next project. Vin Diesel, the star of and producer of the Fast franchise, has that kind of clout now and has decided to use that clout to make…xXx 3?

Breaking news: people all over the world really like fast cars, movie stars, and constant references to family. Related: Furious 7 has just become the third highest grossing movie of all time, overtaking 2012’s The Avengers.