The Gist
Vin Diesel attended the Cannes Film Festival with his late co-star Paul Walker’s daughter, Meadow.
The duo hit the red carpet for a special 25th anniversary screening of The Fast and the Furious.
They were joined by fellow original cast members Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez.
Vin Diesel is marking the 25th anniversary of The Fast and the Furious with his co-star Paul Walker’s daughter, Meadow, by his side. The duo hit the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on May 13 for a special screening of the film that kickstarted the iconic franchise.
Meadow Walker with the cast of ‘The Fast And The Furious’ at Cannes Film Festival in 2026.
Credit: Getty Images
Fellow original cast members Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez were also in attendance. After walking the red carpet, Diesel kicked off the screening with an emotional speech inside the theater in which he remembered his “brother” Paul, who tragically died in a car crash at the age of 40 back in 2013.
“Meadow said to me ‘I’m 27. I’m watching this, and my father made it at 27.’ And I thought, ‘How profound,'” Diesel said, per People. “It’s the cast that’s been that family.”
Vin Diesel and Meadow Walker at Cannes Film Festival in 2026.
Credit: Getty Images
Diesel then gave Meadow a special shout-out: “If I have anything I can say to all of you, it’s that Meadow has been such a source of strength and I know [Paul] would be so proud of you. And I love you forever.”
The Fast and the Furious hit theaters in June 2001 and ultimately spanned a multi-billion dollar franchise. Paul’s death happened midway through Furious 7. At the time, his brothers Caleb and Cody famously stepped in as body doubles for Paul’s remaining scenes to help finish his character’s storyline.
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker winning an award for ‘The Fast and the Furious’ at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards.
Credit: Getty Images
“We got to understand more about Paul, and what he was all about,” Caleb later said in a 2016 interview with Entertainment Tonight. “We had to share Paul with a lot of people, in a weird way. He was gone a lot, he was filming, so we missed him. To kind of get that closure, and understanding [of] Paul was really special.”
Meadow, for her part, has helped keep Paul’s legacy alive via the Paul Walker Foundation, which she founded in September 2015 on what would have been her dad’s 42nd birthday. She also made her onscreen debut in Fast X, which came out in 2023.
Meadow Walker and Vin Diesel at the premiere of ‘Fast X’ in 2023.
Credit: Getty Images
“It did something to my soul, to see her want to honor her father and to contribute in her own way to his life’s work,” Diesel, who is Meadow’s godfather, said of her role in the film, adding, “It meant everything.”
Read the original article on InStyle