F. Gary Gray in talks to direct Furious 8... and Black Panther?

Hours after a director's shortlist surfaced on THR highlighting a trio of names in Universal's sights for Fast & Furious 8, one has already broken away from the pack and entered serious talks for the gig. F. Gary Gray, who helmed this summer's Straight Outta Compton, is in negotiations with producers to steer the next instalment of the action-packed franchise to the big screen.

Gray beat out the likes of You're Next helmer Adam Wingard, Now You See Me's Louis Leterrier, and The Signal's William Eubank, all of whom appeared on the preliminary shortlist. It could have been Gray's prior petrolhead experience on The Italian Job that won over the studio, or perhaps the massive box office success of Compton. Either way, he's now gearing up to work alongside producer and star Vin Diesel as this latest post from the social media-happy actor shows...

Posted by Vin Diesel on Monday, 5 October 2015

Another report from Variety claims that the director is apparently on Marvel's radar to also helm Black Panther. It's logistically possible for him to tackle both the story of T'Challa and the next Fast instalment but he'll have a very packed plate for the next few years.

As it stands now Fast & Furious 8 is slated to open on April 14 2017 with Black Panther set to land on July 6 2018.

Gem Seddon is a freelance writer working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.