Helen Mirren Is Playing Exactly Who You Think She's Playing in THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS

Eight months ago, Helen Mirren was officially confirmed to be part of the cast of Fast 8 (which has since been titled The Fate of the Furious). At the time, I speculated that she could be playing the mother of the villainous brothers Owen and Deckard Shaw (Luke Evans and Jason Statham, respectively), but Mirren has been absent from the trailers thus far.

Yesterday, though, Luke Evans spilled the beans in an interview with Yahoo and confirmed that Mirren is indeed playing that character in the new movie. When asked if his character could come back in a future movie, he responded:

“People come around from comas, so who knows? He’s in a military hospital because he’s the most wanted man in the world, but he’s got a very powerful brother, and he’s now got a mum as well, who’s played by Helen Mirren.”

This is really cool news, but the only sad part is that Mirren — who's been gung-ho to do her own stunt driving for a while — won't actually be getting behind the wheel in the new movie. "I wanted to be driving, but unfortunately, I’m not," she said previously. "Maybe that will come in the future, in Fast and Furious 12." I'm hoping we don't have to wait that long. Fingers crossed she makes a quick appearance in The Fate of the Furious but has a much larger role in Fast 9 and gets to peel out in that one herself.

The Fate of the Furious blazes into theaters on April 14, 2017.