Walker was mourning his grandfather at the time of filming

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is now a beloved part of one of the world’s most beloved film franchises. But when the third Fast & Furious film came out in 2006, fans largely dismissed it because it lacked most of the “family” established in the first two films.

Universal, who produces the films, made a gamble that people loved the cars more than the characters and decided to bring in a whole new cast. The only original cast member to have a meaningful part in the movie is Sung Kang, who appears as Han and helps Lucas (Sean Boswell) learn how to drift.

Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto makes a cameo in the final scene of the film, and he’s the only one from the main, original The Fast and the Furious pair to appear. But the 2018 documentary I Am Paul Walker, which is made its broadcast premiere on CW Saturday, reveals that Walker was also asked to be in the film.

“When it was all said and done, the movie was testing poorly,” Walker’s former manager Matt Luber revealed in the documentary. “[Universal] asked Paul to come down and shoot a cameo to race Lucas Black in the final scene that might have improved test scores and could have led to another sequel going onward.”

Filming the cameo, unfortunately, was scheduled when Walker was on a family trip to bury and mourn his grandfather, WWII vet Paul Walker II. Walker and his grandfather had a close relationship and according to his family, there was no chance Paul would ever miss the funeral.

“When my dad died, Paul stood at his casket and looked at my dad for a long time,” Paul’s father, Paul Walker III said in the documentary. “The closeness that my sons had to my dad was really incredible. We would go up to Oregon to see him and within minutes they were gone with grandpa, fishing.”

“Paul knew he needed to honor him. He was the patriarch of the family. A good man,” Walker’s sister Ashlie added. “There was an opportunity where Paul was supposed to go film something… He would be missing the services. That just wasn’t even possible. There was no way Paul would leave.”

Luber did make the effort to try to convince Walker to do the scene, but the actor was the opposite of receptive.

“I drove up and knocked on his door, looked through windows and knocked on side doors,” Luber recalled. “Then there he was, Paul, charging out of the house with his fists cocked, ‘Get the hell out of here, what are you doing here?!’ I knew he wasn’t going to do anything but I got back into my car and started to drive back down the 101 to Hollywood. In five minutes, I got a call on the way back down and he goes, ‘I’m sorry. I love you…I’m not doing it.'”

The manager went on to explain how not doing the cameo led to professional difficulties down the road, but Walker was never going to compromise that time with his family.

“I believe in my heart that if Paul had come down for that cameo in [Tokyo Drift], that would have dovetailed into control of the Fast & Furious franchise with more ease going forward,” he said. “It didn’t happen. His grandfather came first.”

Prioritizing his family was a theme that ran through the entire two-hour documentary about the late actor and was echoed again by his sister.

“His family was the most important thing,” she said. “I just admire Paul that he always kept those priorities straight.”

Walker died in a car accident in 2013. He was 40.