It's delayed, but it's a go: originally scheduled for release in July 2014, the next installment of the Fast and Furious franchise of movies will hit theaters in April 2015. 

According to CNN, after many starts and stops, the film -- the last installment of the film to star Paul Walker, 40, who died in a fiery car crash on Nov. 30 -- will be released in April 2015, and will indeed star Paul Walker. This information comes courtesy of the film's star, Vin Diesel, who posted the following message to his Facebook wall: "There was a unique sense of completion, of pride we shared... in the film we were now completing... the magic captured... and, in just how far we've come...," Diesel wrote, announcing a new release date for the film -- April 10, 2015. "P.S. He'd want you to know first...," he said.

According to The Los Angeles Times, it is not clear how the script will be reworked to accommodate the absence of Walker. Universal executives and lead producer Neal Moritz suspended production for the past three weeks as they convened to determine how to proceed without the actor, who is believed to have shot only about half his scenes before his death. There is no word yet on the resumption of production.

Walker and the cast were on a production break when he got into a 2005 Porsche Carerra GT for a short ride around a Santa Clarita, Calif., business park. Investigators believe the car, driven by Walker's friend, was speeding when it clipped a light pole and was engulfed in flames, killing both men. 

It could very well be that finances, and not sentimentality, was the driving force behind continuing with the "Fast and Furious" franchise: the films have grossed more than $2 billion internationally since their release.