Well racing fans, the talk over the last year or so hasn’t just been idle chit chat, and Universal’s second most successful franchise will indeed be 10-films long. As is customary for the series, the news comes courtesy of star Vin Diesel’s Instagram account, where tonight he revealed the release dates for the next three Fast & Furious films. As previously announced, Fast 8 drops April 14, 2017. Fast & Furious 9 will follow it on April 19,2019, with Fast & Furious 10 coming April 2, 2021.

Diesel long said that Fast 8 was intended to form the first installment of a trilogy that will bring the series to a conclusion after 10 films. That plan, he says, is in part meant to honor the memory of Paul Walker. That’s very touching, but of course the biggest factor in the decision isn’t sentiment, but money. Luckily for Diesel, the last installment, 2015’s Furious 7, was a huge hit for Universal that went on to earn $1.516 billion worldwide. Even so, the studio has until now declined to make it official official, though they’ve largely been treated as more or less inevitable.

Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray is directing the next installment of the series, Fast 8, with the full cast including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham expected to return. Neil Moritz is producing with Diesel.

So how early do you start working on an official treatment for the next film?

It varies. Kind of like I was saying with Vin, while we’re doing one of the films, we’ll start talking and daydreaming about other ideas and it’ll be a loose thing then. But as soon as the studio plants a flag and officially decides ‘we’re going to do the next one,’ that’s really when we get serious about a treatment or an outline or a scriptment or something like that.

Have they done that yet for Fast 9? Have you started work on that movie already?

No, we’re still sort of talking about it. Vin and I have talked about this one for a while, because the intent is to do 8, 9, and 10 and to make it a trilogy. So how do they all connect, what are we moving toward, what’s that final end point? We’ve been playing around with that stuff, and the studio has announced dates on it, but in terms of the script actually being written right now, we’re not at that stage yet.

Is there anything at all that you can tell me about those conversations that you’ve had about Fast 9? Any hint at all about what we might see?

Not really, other than just the things we set up in 8, we’re going to pay off in the trilogy. But other than that, it’s all kind of under wraps, unfortunately.

Many of the franchise stars are returning, led by Vin Diesel. It is unclear whether Dwayne Johnson will return.

#PSA Congratulations to @TheRock and your brother in law aka 7 bucks producing partner @hhgarcia41 for making the fast and the furious franchise about YOU - And like you, DJ even if they call I will not be deleting this post - Gn folks see you in 2020 April #FastFamily right? Nah..... it's about #TeamDewayne #3yrs will it be worth the wait? #NoShaw just Hobbs will this be another #BayWatch? Guys guys just relax I'm just a passionate film critic

Sources also say Justin Lin may be lining up to return to the franchise and is the top man to helm the core entry of Fast 9.

If you move forward with that #Hobbs Movie you will have purposely ignored the heart to heart moment we had in my sprinter,I don’t wanna hear from you until you remember what we talked about. I’m on your timeline cause you’re not responding to my text messages – #FastFamily is just that a family…….. We don’t fly solo.

I don't do email bruh You got my cell same San Diego # hit me