Tracing the history of the Riddick franchise makes for fascinating reading, and it may not be hyperbolic to suggest that the only reason the sci-fi saga remains alive and kicking today is because star and producer Vin Diesel owns the rights.

After all, B-tier gem Pitch Black featured the goggle-wearing cosmic convict in a ing capacity, which somehow caused Diesel and director David Twohy to fundamentally misunderstand the character’s appeal and position him as the focal point of a $120 million space opera for the ambitious sequel.

Needless to say, The Chronicles of Riddick flopped hard, but the Fast & Furious figurehead’s perseverance paid off when a threequel finally emerged into the spotlight nine years later. Returning to its roots was definitely the smartest call, with Riddick returning the stuttering property to some semblance of critical and commercial glory.

That being said, it does boast one of the worst screenplays you’ll ever hear spoken out loud in the sci-fi genre, but it would appear that’s simply part of the charm. A Reddit thread remarking on the boneheaded dialogue that defines the film from beginning to end quickly evolved into an all-out celebration of its status as brutal, bloody, R-rated, dumb fun.

If you ignore talk of unicorn’s asses and the unsettling obsession with Katee Sackhoff’s various physical attributes, it’s a stellar threequel that does exactly what a Riddick project should do. Let’s hope Diesel doesn’t get carried away again now that fourth installment Furya is officially in the works, because its immediate predecessor should be the number one source of inspiration.

Despite always being a critically middling franchise, the Riddick films have persisted through the past two decades, with a fourth entry, Riddick 4: Furya officially inbound after something to the tune of a decade of it being in the works in some capacity. 

That news seems to have gotten the franchise’s cult fandom on a bit of a rewatch spree, with the third entry in the franchise, Riddick, springing its way into the global Top 10 most-watched movies on Netflix this week, snagging the number eight spot, a week after the film graced the charts in the United States region. 

All three entries in the Riddick franchise have managed to chart in the U.S. this week, with the threequel climbing as high as the number four spot, while Chronicles and Pitch Black, the second and first films respectively, sat in ranks number six and ten. 

While the original film Pitch Black remains the most well-received on Rotten Tomatoes by a razor-thin margin, the middling third entry is the only one in the series to have snuck its way into the streaming platform’s global charts. 

The renaissance in Riddick’s popularity may well be a byproduct of hype for the fourth film, Riddick 4: Furya, which was confirmed to be officially on the way last month. as well as the broader Vin Diesel fandom getting amped for the release of Fast X, the tagline for which we maintain should have been “Fast-Ten Your Seatbelts.” Perhaps a missed marketing opportunity, but we digress.

You can catch all three Riddick films on Netflix if you’re due a rewatch, and if you need a refresher on the optimal viewing order, we can help with that. 

While The Fast and the Furious is regularly pinpointed as the breakout role that helped transform Vin Diesel into one of the modern era’s defining action heroes – which is entirely fair when you consider the 10th mainline installment (and 11th overall) is heading to theaters in a matter of weeks – David Twohy’s Pitch Black should never go unmentioned.

After all, the chrome-domed actor was hardly a household name when the cult favorite cosmic creature feature crash-landed in February of 2000, but his scene-stealing performance as the intergalactic convict displayed no shortage of screen presence, charisma, and indicators that we were witnessing a star-making performance in the flesh.

Dominic Toretto may have proven more lucrative, but Diesel has always given off the impression that he holds Richard B. Riddick closer to his heart, and that’s not just because the character headlined a bloated sequel that almost killed the franchise, a superior third installment, a pair of video games, a feature-length animation, and several other forms of tie-in media.

Nobody could have predicted at the time that an entire shared universe was on the cards, with fourth live-action chapter Furya finally gaining some real momentum after a decade of nothing but hearsay and wishful thinking, but it’s Pitch Black that’s been battling against alien interlopers on Netflix this week.

Per FlixPatrol, the B-tier escapade that finds a downed spacecraft dumped right into the middle of a hostile planet is one of the Top 10 most-watched flicks on Netflix in the United States, underlining that the Riddick renaissance is well and truly upon us.

This year marks 10 years since the release of Riddick, which brought the cult classic sci-fi franchise back from the brink following its disastrous initial sequel that tried and failed to reinvent the property as a sweeping space opera – but Vin Diesel is still telling us that the fourth installment is on the way without having anything to show for it.

In the actor and producer’s defense, he owns the rights to the character and can do whatever the hell he wants, but we’d be lying if we said it hasn’t gotten boring seeing him constantly tease that Riddick: Furya is coming down the pipeline without actually having provided any tangible evidence cameras will be rolling at any point in the near future.

He’s at it again, though, with the patriarch of the Fast & Furious family taking to Instagram to reveal more concept art from his long-gestating return as the cosmic convict, even if we’ve been here many times before.

In the decade since he last donned the googles, Diesel has played Dominic Toretto three times (with a fourth on the way when Fast X lands in May), he’s voiced Groot in six Marvel Cinematic Universe projects and Ralph Breaks the Internet, while also finding the time to try and fail to get The Last Witch Hunter and Bloodshot off the ground as viable vehicles, so it’s not as if he’s been standing idly by twiddling his thumbs.

It was in January 2014 the gravel-throated action hero first announced Riddick was getting a fourth film, and yet here we are nine years on and in the exact same position. “Very exciting” isn’t the groundbreaking development fans were hoping for, but it was an entirely expected nothingburger.

Given that we haven’t seen or heard anything official regarding the franchise for close to a decade from anyone other than star Vin Diesel, it’s easy to assume that Riddick is dead in the water. While that may be the case, we know better than to write off the gravel-throated action hero and his insatiable desire to headline as many franchises as humanly possible.

It’s also worth noting that it isn’t just a film series, either, but an entire shared universe. Nobody could have predicted such levels of expansion when David Twohy’s Pitch Black garnered instant cult classic status back in 2000, but we’re now talking about an original sci-fi IP that’s comprised of three features, an animated movie, three video games, two novels, and even a couple of motion comics.

Nine years have elapsed since Riddick did a strong job of compensating for the exceedingly misguided box office disaster that was The Chronicles of Riddick, and the continued radio silence regarding the future has done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm that plenty of Redditors clearly still hold for a brand that’s always operated somewhere between ambitious and overreaching.

Diesel keeps telling us Riddick 4 is on the way without actually providing any tangible evidence to back up his assertions, but he’ll need something to do when his lengthy tenure as the patriarch of the Fast & Furious family comes to an end, so we most definitely wouldn’t rule out.

There’s clearly a fandom there ready for more, too, we’ll just need to see if Twohy and his leading man can get the okay from the studio. Diesel does own the rights, though, so he’s never going to give up the ghost.

The key to sustaining any long-running franchise is to keep evolving and freshening up the formula, but some properties have taken that concept to heart a great deal more than others.

Perhaps the most notable modern example is The Fast Saga. If you were to grab somebody who was only familiar with Rob Cohen’s 2001 opener The Fast and the Furious, and then have them watch last year’s ninth installment, then they’d be left wondering exactly what the hell happened in the two decades between.

With that in mind, film fans have been naming the big-name brands that made such a radical departure from their opening chapters that they were barely even recognizable as extensions of the same IP, and some excellent points are being made.

Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo was always going to be one of the first contenders to come up, with the acclaimed and atmospheric thrills of the first film quickly being replaced by the macho, muscular running and gunning that would define the headband-wearing icon for the next 40 years.

Needless to say, Dominic Toretto and his crew going from boosting VCRs to sending a car into outer space followed closely behind, but it isn’t long until Stallone rears his head again as pugilistic Redditors point out how quickly Rocky went from a gritty and grounded sports story to an over-the-top ode to the excessive 1980s.

Vin Diesel’s The Chronicles of Riddick made a huge swing and a miss by refitting itself as a space opera, but despite what the majority of top-voted comments would have you believe, it isn’t all about Stallone and Diesel, even if they do crop up more often than anyone else.

It goes without saying that Vin Diesel is a man who loves a sequel more than most, with the majority of the actor and producer’s career over the last 20 years revolving almost entirely around franchise fare, whether he’s reprising a familiar character or trying to launch a new multi-film series.

Fast & Furious 10 is about to begin shooting, and if you include short film Los Bandoleros and his four-episode stint on animated show Spy Racers, it’ll be his twelfth time throwing on the white vest of Dominic Toretto.

Thor: Love and Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and the latter’s Disney Plus Holiday Special will bring him up to eight outings as Groot, while he’s also got a mystery part in James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, even if his third stint as xXx‘s Xander Cage remains mired in development hell.

However, you get the distinct impression that Riddick might be his personal favorite, given how long he’s stuck with the intergalactic convict. On top of three big screen efforts, Diesel also developed a pair of video games, animated spinoff Dark Fury and short film Blindsided, while he keeps telling us Furya is coming together behind the scenes.

We’ve heard him tout it so often that we’ll believe it when we actually see it with our own eyes, but that hasn’t stopped 2013’s Riddick from exploding into life on streaming. As per FlixPatrol, the R-rated sci-fi actioner has exploded out of nowhere to become one of the ten most-watched titles on HBO in the United States.

James Gunn, director of the entire Guardians of the Galaxy series to date, has revealed which member was the easiest to cast.

Gunn responded to a question on Twitter from a fan about Drax the Destroyer, and the casting process behind the Kartathian warrior. According to Gunn, Bautista was not only a perfect fit for the role, he was “the only” actor in auditions who completely nailed the character.

Casting for Guardians of the Galaxy began in July 2012, shortly after studio head Kevin Feige confirmed the film’s existence at that year’s San Diego Comic-Con. The first confirmed were Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer and Star-Lord, with Chris Pratt g on to play the latter without reading a script.

The five leads of Guardians of the Galaxy were pencilled in over the next months, with Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, and former wrestler Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer.

Dave Bautista had been a wrestler for the WWE during a major stint from 2002 to 2010, and also picked up his first acting credits in 2006. His first role was as an unnamed wrestler in the comedy film Relative Strangers which starred Danny DeVito. Bautista later made a name for himself in action movies over the next few years, with solid performances in The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption, and in Riddick (alongside future castmate and Guardian Vin Diesel).

His casting as Drax the Destroyer was curious at the time, given the ongoing taboo of wrestlers in major Hollywood films. But Bautista absolutely nailed the role, with his surprisingly human backstory resonating much more than you’d expect for a a big green man with tattoos. 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy is still seen as one of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, predominately thanks to the charisma of the main cast.

Gunn added that during test screenings of Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2, that Drax was the most popular and well-received character by audiences – even beating out Baby Groot.

Drax’s popularity increased tenfold after the release of Avengers: Infinity War, with the ongoing joke about Drax being “invisible” getting so big that both director James Gunn and actor Dave Bautista had tired of it. Bautista also spoke out this year about Marvel’s failure to further expand on the history between Drax and Thanos, saying the missed opportunity “just makes me shake my f*****g head”.

Bautista and the rest of the Guardians cast are set to return in three Marvel Studios projects, such as Thor: Love and Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3, and Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.

Vin Diesel is nothing if not determined to keep the Riddick franchise alive by any means necessary, even if we’ve only managed to get three feature films out of the equation in the space of 21 years. That’s not a great return, but another outing for the intergalactic convict is always lingering at the back of his mind.

One of the tank top enthusiast’s favored habits is to continually talk up new projects, before failing to mention them again for the longest time. We saw it twice last year when he teased a sequel to The Last Witch Hunter and major Bloodshot news, and yet we’re still waiting to hear the latest updates.

Riddick 4 is in a very similar boat; Diesel said the script was complete in July 2019, and three months later he revealed shooting would begin the following year. When that didn’t happen, he claimed in May 2020 the screenplay was almost ready, and then didn’t offer anything else for a full year until dropping a tease this past June.

As you can see below, the action star is back at it again, revealing via Instagram that Riddick 4 is apparently much closer than we think.

It’s been eight years since the last installment, and in that time the leading man has blown plenty of hot air without actually presenting anything tangible. Maybe this is the time Riddick 4 finally comes together, because Diesel will need another franchise to keep him busy once his Fast & Furious tenure draws to a close.

If Vin Diesel attaches himself to a project, you can bet your ass that cinema’s number one proponent of family will have his eyes on a franchise. The chrome-domed action star is no stranger to sequels, spinoffs and multimedia properties, and it’s an approach that’s served him incredibly well over the last two decades.

He might be best known as Fast & Furious figurehead Dominic Toretto, but you get the distinct impression that he might have preferred Riddick to go down as his career-defining role. He may have only played the character in three films dating back 21 years and counting, but at no stage has he ever given up on bringing the intergalactic convict back for more.

As he’s been telling us for what feels like forever, a fourth Riddick remains in active development, but we’re hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us Disney wanted a Free Guy sequel long before Ryan Reynolds confirmed it – that Diesel is aiming even higher than that, with an entire shared universe on his mind.

Of course, you could make the argument that one already exists, given that Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick and Riddick have been complemented by numerous spinoffs. Animated film Dark Fury, mobile game The Merc Files and console favorites Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena cover most bases, and two separate TV shows have been announced by Diesel and David Twohy, although neither of them amounted to anything.

Given the slow crawl that Riddick: Furya has been making towards actually getting into production, it’d probably be best for the leading man to focus on getting that project out of the gate before biting off more than he can chew.

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.

What with the Fast & Furious franchise he helped establish taking up a large chunk of his time, Vin Diesel rarely finds the time to take on other projects. With the series’ ninth installment now available worldwide, the action star has had the chance to sit down with the press and talk about not just his most famous character of Dominic Toretto but others that he’s equally fond of. One of those, of course, is the extraterrestrial anti-hero from Chronicles of Riddick. A lone wanderer and orphan of his race following his people’s presumed extinction, the role immediately garnered Diesel and his role a cult following and would eventually spawn two sequels to the original 2000 film, Pitch Black. While filming has yet to begin, a fourth entry, Riddick 4: Furya, is due to enter production whenever cast and crew are available, but will there be an accompanying video game this time around? In truth, no such thing has been announced and while Diesel is a self-proclaimed gamer, even he might have a hard time finding a publisher following 2009’s disappointing Assault on Dark Athena. In stark contrast to its successor, 2004’s Escape From Butcher Bay cemented a reputation for itself as a solid shooter in its own right and one of few adaptations of a movie IP to receive nearly universal critical acclaim. Diesel recalls this success to GamesRadar while briefly touching on the topic of a third game, stating: “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.” Would you love nothing more than to embark on another digital adventure in the Chronicles of Riddick universe, or is the series better left to its native medium? Let us know in the usual place below!