Vin Diesel's New Film Help Deal With Paul Walker's Death

(KBCWtv) – Vin Diesel's latest role in The Last Witch Hunter has helped the action star deal through his grief over losing good friend and Fast & Furious co-star Paul Walker.

In 2013, Walker was a passenger in a Porsche that crashed in Northern Los Angeles. At the time, Diesel and Walker was filming the seventh installment of the Fast & Furious movies.

In The Last Witch Hunter, Diesel plays "Klauder," a warrior cursed with immortality by a powerful and evil witch. "The idea that someone immortal could be so melancholy." Diesel tells the Associated Press. "2014 was a tough year for me in some ways — a lot of ways," Diesel said, choking up before continuing. "Playing a character that was masking his sorrow — his loss — was very appropriate for the time, because that's what I was doing in real life with the post-"Furious 7."

Diesel has been in several Sci-Fi fantasy movies. Recently providing the voice of Groot in Marvel's Guardians of The Galaxy, The Chronicles of Riddick films and Babylon A.D. As for The Last Witch Hunter, the film meant more to Diesel. "Death was a huge theme last year," Diesel said. "There was something therapeutic about playing this role after going through (Paul's death)."

After "Witch Hunter," Diesel will take on several sequels including a return as Dominic Toretto in Furious 8, as Xander Cage in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and as Groot in Marvel's Guardians of The Galaxy 2.

 
The Last Witch Hunter opens in theaters on Friday, October 23rd.

Ron Del Rosario is a digital editor, online writer, web producer and pop culture blogger for KPIX 5/CBS, KBCWtv/The CW & CBS Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find him on Twitter at @rondhype.