Here's How Helen Mirren Ended Up In Fast 8

The addition of Academy Award winner Helen Mirren to The Fate of the Furious was a bit of a head scratcher for fans, but, according to series star Vin Diesel, the wildly famous actress actually requested a role in the action franchise.

In an interview with Total Film magazine (via GamesRadar), Diesel said that Mirren approached him at a party and said, "I want to be in Fast and Furious with you." "People don't know that I'm the one working for a year beforehand with the writers and coming up with the story," Diesel said. "The script was [already] greenlit, but she told the right person, because a week later she got written in."

Details on Mirren's character have been kept mostly under wraps, although Fast 6 star Luke Evans said in an interview with Yahoo! Movies that she would be playing the mother of Evans' Owen Shaw and Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw. The actress, who showed off her action chops in Red and Red 2, says she was attracted to the franchise because she has always "loved driving," adding, "I said, 'I'll be in [The Fate of the Furious], but only if I'm allowed to drive if I do drive in it.'"

Although she has since suggested in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that she doesn't actually get in the driver's seat, we're going to assume she's being coy and wait until the movie is released on April 24 to find out for sure. While we wait, mark your calendars for the other 2017 movie releases you won't want to miss.