'Fast and Furious 8' release date, cast, updates: director heaps praise on Kristofer Hivju

(INSTAGRAM/Kristofer Hivju)Kristofer Hivju has joined the cast of "Fast and Furious 8"

Shooting for "Fast and Furious 8" is well on the way and fans are in for a whole lot of fun as Vin Diesel finally shared the movie's first cast photo and director F. Gary Gray continues to update fans through his social media pages.

Diesel's picture doesn't look like it was taken by a professional photographer and it is obviously not a promotional poster-type as it appears to have been taken while some of the cast members were on break after some shoots. It seems like the cast had been called upon to just strike a pose for whoever took the photo.

#F8

A photo posted by Vin Diesel (@vindiesel) on

In the image, the 11 cast members, old and new ones, each have their stories to tell. The cast picture features (from left to right): Jason Statham, Kristofer Hivju, Kurt Russell, Tyrese Gibson, Charlize Theron, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Scott Eastwood, and Dwayne Johnson.

Obviously, Johnson is enjoying the cameras as he gave off a winning pose that differed from the rest of the stars. Eastwood seemed to be also having a lot of fun too as he took on a pose that made him look like a photo-bomber behind Emmanuel.

Meanwhile, director Gray's social media pages have also been busy over the past few days as he had been sharing photos and videos of production. One of the featured clips on his Instagram account saw cars flying and bumping into each other on the ice, which only means the set has moved to Iceland for shoots.

Just in case you missed it on Friday! #fastfridays #f8 #turnup #literally #behindthescenes

A video posted by F Gary Gray (@fgarygray) on

In another video, Gray praised newcomer Hivju, fresh from "Game of Thrones," for his focus as he and Gray watched what could possibly be sequences of the movie which were recently recorded.

According to Empire, Hivju will be playing the role of Theron's henchman. Not too many details have been revealed about Theron's Cipher and her henchman but the heavily-bearded actor's addition to the "Fast 8" team has boosted the interest of fans who saw his performance in "GoT."

"Fast and Furious 8" is slated to hit big screens on April 14, 2017.

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