Wiz Khalifa’s ‘See You Again’ Tribute To ‘Fast & Furious 7’ Star Paul Walker Earns 43 Million Views
“Fast & Furious 7” paid its tribute to the late Paul Walker during its final scene with a touching "See You Again" music video from rapper Wiz Khalifa. The video has since been viewed approximately 43, 083,043 times (as of writing) on Vin Diesel’s Facebook page.
The two minute and 48 second music video is basically a montage of scenes showing Paul Walker in his previous “Fast & Furious” films. According to Mirror UK, the video also showed the actor’s last scenes playing as Brian O’Connor in “Fast & Furious 7.”
The music video for “See You Again,” which also features singer Charlie Puth, was reportedly initially shared by one of Paul Walker’s closest friends and “Fast & Furious” co-star Vin Diesel. According to Mirror UK, the video gained up to 28 million views a day after the actor shared it on his Facebook page, where he captioned it, “Pablo, this weekend you turned the world into a family...Thanks for the love.”
“See You Again” is among the original soundtracks for “Fast & Furious 7” and was chosen as the song for the final scene because of its “celebratory” connotation. Universal Pictures’ president of music Mike Knoblock reportedly did not want viewers leaving the theatres sad, so he opted to choose Wiz Khalifa’s song among the other music soundtrack for the film.
“Once it was clear that that’s the [film’s] structure - the cast saying goodbye to Paul’s character - we put it out to writers that the song had to be earnest and celebratory. We knew we didn’t want people leaving the theatre sad,” he said.
According to Yahoo, Wiz Khalifa also linked the music video for “See You Again” on his “Donate” call-to-action button on his Facebook page so fans can donate to Paul Walker’s “Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW) charity. The “Fast & Furious 7” soundtrack has reportedly already landed the No. 1 spot in 30 countries and has reached across Top 40 and Rhythm radio nationwide.
The box office success of “Fast & Furious 7,” landing at top 9 with a record-breaking $143.6 million for its opening weekend alone, is also considered as tribute to the late Paul Walker. According to BoxOffice.com chief analyst Phil Contrino, Paul Walker’s death made the seventh installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise more intriguing to viewers. Thus, aside from Wiz Khalifa’s song, the film’s success can very well be considered a tribute to the actor who died in a tragic car crash on Nov. 30, 2013.
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