The last installment of this automotive mayhem franchise, Furious 7, left many questions that future sequels are obligated to answer:

1. Can the series continue after the death of actor Paul Walker?

2. Can the series continue to pretend that it never made reference to Tokyo drifting?

3. Will the franchise be hampered by a recent Universal Pictures edict in which the characters are hereafter limited to driving one vehicle made by the series’ new sponsor: the Mitsubishi Mirage?

Fate of the Furious, which opens today, may provide some answers.

After Walker died, some pundits wondered whether Universal should just stop making films in the franchise.

But Universal executives said Walker would have wanted the series to continue, given that Walker had been very sentimental about Universal’s money.

The title of the new film features a veiled reference to the sequel’s chronological place in the series (essentially, “F8 of the Furious”).

Future titles now being considered by Universal include: The Fast and the Asi9 and Dis10ded and Furious.

The series has a checkered history. It almost didn’t bounce back from the universally panned third installment, The Fast and the Furry-ous, which was set in the world of animal costume fetishism.

Luckily, Universal quickly figured out what viewers really wanted and it has been giving it to them ever since: More automotive phallic metaphors than you can shake a phallus at.

Universal has every reason to be optimistic about the prospects of Fate of the Furious, but there are signs of trouble.

This is the second consecutive installment without the word “fast” in the title, which would seem to suggest that some sort of deceleration is happening.

Universal might want to have that checked out.

In Fate of the Furious, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) appears to have turned evil and is battling his former crime-fighting cohorts.

Has Dom really become a criminal or will viewers find out, in a plot twist so shocking that only everybody would have been able to predict it, that he’s being blackmailed?

It’s probably that first one.

New cast members include Charlize Theron as a super-villain named Cypher. While it is easy to fault Cypher for her aloofness and insensitivity, she explains in the film that there really aren’t a whole lot of options in life for a girl whose parents named her Cypher.

Cypher has always secretly wished that her parents had gone with their first choice: Twinkles.

Cypher seems remarkably evil in the trailers, but how will she measure up to other memorable villains in the series: Tabula Rasa, Goose Egg and Diddly Squat?

Also joining the series is British acting legend Helen Mirren.

Fans almost blew a gasket trying to figure out what part she’d be playing in Fate of the Furious.

Luckily, Mirren eventually revealed via Twitter than she’d be reprising one of her signature roles: Queen Elizabeth.

The new film generated some controversy recently when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson called some unnamed fellow cast members, “candy asses.”

We must consider the possibility that Johnson intended this as a compliment, given that an ass made out of actual candy would be quite advantageous in certain situations.

At one point in a trailer, we see Johnson drive a car with one hand while steering a torpedo with another.

If anyone can make us believe such a preposterous scene, it’s either Johnson or a man whose ass is made out of actual candy.

Fate of the Furious will compete with Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3 for the affection of automobile aficionados this summer.

It remains to be seen which film will win the coveted title, “Most CGI.”