'Fast & Furious 7' Release Date: Movie Slated for April 2015 Launch; Paul Walker to Appear

Paul Walker will appear in "Fast & Furious 7," which will now be released in April 2015.

Universal Pictures announced Monday that it would delay the movie a year to compensate for the premature death of Walker; the actor passed away in car accident a few weeks ago. The film was originally slated for a July 11, 2014 release date but will now compete in a rather crowded 2015 schedule that includes several tent pole films such as "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Batman vs. Superman," "Star Wars: Episode VII," "Ant-Man," "Assassin's Creed," "Terminator," "Independence Day 2," "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2," "Jurassic World," and the fifth installment of the "Bourne" franchise.

Production on the film had been underway when Walker passed away and there was a ton of speculation as to how the studio would handle the death of one of its major stars. There were ideas about cutting him out of the film altogether and simply rewriting portions of the script to compensate for his absence. Universal has announced that Walker will be included in the film. There was no comment on how the story would deal with his death or when filming on "Fast & Furious 7" will resume.

"Fast & Furious 7" will also star Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Lucas Black, Nathalie Kelly, Kurt Russell, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris. The film is being directd by "The Conjuring's" James Wan while the script is written by Chris Morgan.