You’ve got to admire Vin Diesel’s determination to turn everything he touches into a multi-film series designed to run for as long as humanly possible, even if it doesn’t always work out that way. Fast & Furious 9 only hit domestic theaters last Friday, but the action star is already looking forward and hyping up the fourth installment in the Riddick franchise.
Diesel has been playing intergalactic convict Richard B. Riddick longer than he’s been throwing on the signature white tank top of Dominic Toretto, but the expanded Pitch Black universe has a much more checkered history. It was the wrong move to position sequel The Chronicles of Riddick as a big budget space opera, and the most notable thing about the box office bomb was the fact the leading man taught Judi Dench how to play Dungeons & Dragons during their downtime on set.
Almost a decade later, Riddick stripped back the concept and fared much better from a critical and commercial perspective, but we’ve spent the last eight years hearing Diesel intermittently talk up Furya, even if it hasn’t managed to gain much traction. In a new interview, though, the 53 year-old said the script was finished, and he’s even looking to shoot in Australia with returning director David Twohy.
“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.”
Between two more Fast & Furious movies, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a potential fourth xXx, talk of follow ups to The Last Witch Hunter and Bloodshot in addition to Riddick: Furya, Diesel’s desire to headline as many franchises as possible is set to continue for at least a little while longer, and that’s without even mentioning his top secret role in James Cameron’s Avatar sequels that he’s still not allowed to talk about.