Fast & Furious 8's Charlize Theron Will Play a "Sympathetic Villain"

While the Fast & Furious movies have featured plenty of bad guys in the past, it's the car action and heroic stars that the series is best known for. This may well change with Fast & Furious 8, which is currently shooting and features Charlize Theron as the main antagonist Cipher. Now the film's composer has revealed that this will be more a complicated villainous role than in previous films.

Brian Tyler spoke to EW recently, and suggested that audiences might find themselves rooting for Cipher. "It's like a siren kind of thing," he said. "There's no question the havoc and villainy she brings [but] you're attracted to it. There's something where you can kind of see yourself in this villain that makes it more disturbing and, at the same time, more interesting.

"It's the sympathetic villains, in a way, who really get under your skin. In a much different way, but like how Anthony Hopkins did Hannibal Lecter, where you like him, but you're like, 'Wait, why am I doing that? I shouldn't be rooting for this person.' She has that ability to do that. She's just a fantastic actor."

Theron featured in the cast photo that star Vin Diesel posted on Instagram this week, where she was joined by the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jason Statham, and Kurt Russell.

In February, Diesel announced the release dates for the next three parts in the series, with part 8 arriving in 2017, and the others following in 2019 and 2021. He also told Variety that there were plans for spinoffs. "We've written out story lines for various characters," he said. "We've been playing with it for a long time. It's a very rich property and we're committed to treating it with a lot of class."

Fast & Furious 8 hits theaters on April 14, 2017.