Vin Diesel Is Developing A Riddick Universe?
Apparently, Vin Diesel wants to develop a new franchise and entire world around Riddick, one of his first major characters on screen.
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Vin Diesel is set on exiting his most popular franchise in the coming years, but that doesn’t mean the dude is slowing down at all when it comes to pumping out future projects. Quite the contrary with the actor lining up and being rumored in a number of different things that could turn into future franchises as well. And We Got This Covered has it that Diesel is apparently thinking about revisiting a previous character and building out a whole world of movies around him. We could be seeing a bunch more of Riddick in the years to come.
There are few details around what Vin Diesel has in mind when it comes to world-building around Riddick, but considering the number of projects and movies already out there about the character, it isn’t a leap to figure there are more stories in this world. Building out a shared universe for Riddick would feel like a logical extension of what the franchise has already created. The operative question revolves around whether there is actually a studio appetite for the character. That remains to be seen, but Diesel is still a significant draw meaning we could see much more coming to the screen in this world.
For starters, Riddick 4: Furya has been at various points in development and pre-production over the last seven-plus years. Rumored to be getting started all the way back in 2014, the film apparently has a script and is still in the works. But the protracted timeline around it does lend at least a few question marks around whether this will ever actually happen. That being said, if Vin Diesel was going to use that movie as a launching pad to future stories in a much bigger and expansive franchise then it would make sense to have a more cleverly crafted story than simply just a one-off sequel.
Vin Diesel started with the Riddick franchise more than two decades ago, all the way back in 2000 with Pitch Black. It was one of his first major starring roles, though a low-budget movie at the time, getting off the ground at *just* $23 million dollars. But it doubled its money at the box office ($53 million) and was decently well-received by critics with a 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In the movie, his character begins as a murderous thug with altered eyesight that allows him to see at night.
Vin Diesel followed Pitch Black up with The Chronicles of Riddick, the first attempt to begin using the titular character’s name as the franchise moniker. This one went much bigger-budget with over $100 million dollars in operating and advertising costs. But while it did perform *better* at the box office, it still mostly just broke even with $116 in returns.
The franchise has gone on to spawn numerous other movies and animated features including 2014s Riddick, and animated film Dark Fury, plus comic books and even video games like Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Athena. There are quite a few stories to tell in this world based on what has been put out there already. We will have to wait to see what Vin Diesel has in mind when it comes to constructing an even bigger world.
And of course, this is all on the back of us knowing that Vin Diesel is set to wrap up his time with the Fast & Furious franchise. He has already announced that he will make two more films in that world and then call it quits.
