This study aims to understand the microstructure evolution and texture development during friction extrusion of aluminum alloys, focusing on AA7075 as exemplary alloy system. Electron backscatter diffraction technique has been employed to obtain crystallographic data from various regions in front of the die and in the wire. It can be deduced that the combination of continuous dynamic recrystallization and geometric dynamic recrystallization mainly govern the formation of a fine-grained structure, however discontinuous dynamic recrystallization may also play a role at high temperature. The global shear deformation during the process was characterized as a simple shear deformation with dominant B/B¯ simple shear texture components. The material flow is mainly driven by the in-plane shear strain and the extrusion-induced shear strain that are determined by die rotational speed and extrusion force, respectively. The in-plane shear strain strongly affects the formation of a homogeneous fine-grained microstructure in the aluminum wire. In this regard, a novel material flow model for friction extrusion has been proposed.