Vin Diesel is a busy man. After producing and starring in the Fast & Furious franchise he’s become one of the world’s highest-grossing actors, in addition to running a production company, a record label, a games development studio, and, of course, voicing Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. But there’s one property that remains particularly close to his heart: Riddick.
Diesel’s breakout role was in 2000’s Pitch Black, which introduced us to badass monster-killing space mercenary Richard B. Riddick. Since then he’s played the character in 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick and animated short Dark Fury, 2013’s Riddick and well-received video games Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena. A return to the character has long been mooted in Riddick 4: Furya and now Diesel has given us the best indication yet that it’s still coming.
In an interview with Games Radar, he said:
“David Twohy, he wrote a great script. It’s just a matter of timing when we get that opportunity to shoot that. But I believe we’re shooting that in Australia. And it would be the fourth chapter in that series, which would be awesome.”
He went on to say that a new movie could be just one aspect of Riddick’s revival, with further games also planned:
“We did have great success with Escape From Butcher Bay. It feels like an eternity ago now. But, I imagine that we would take advantage of the gaming space and add an extra chapter. But definitely, the [movie’s] script is already written. So it’s safe to say that we are moving towards filming the fourth chapter of Riddick.”
The title Furya points to a focus on Riddick’s home planet, so we should learn more about his origins and potentially his family. Riddick made a choice to suppress most memories of his past in order to become a better warrior, so this is a good hint that some serious beef went down there. Furya is desolate after a Necromonger invasion, though I suspect it may hold hidden secrets in its cursed depths.
Let’s hope for confirmation soon on when the next Riddick movie will shoot, but it doesn’t sound like it’s too far off.