New Riddick Sequel Movie Moving Forward
If a new rumor is to be believed, the fourth film in Vin Diesel's Chronicles of Riddick series might soon be on the way in the near future.
This article is more than 2 years old
Ever since 2014, Vin Diesel has been pushing to make the fourth film in his Chronicles of Riddick franchise. The series has been something of a pet project for Diesel, since first playing the character of Riddick in 2000’s Pitch Black, and he’s helped give the character two sequels, an animated film, multiple video games, and several books. If a new rumor is to be believed, a fourth film in the series might also soon be on the way.
As reported by We Got This Covered, writer Daniel Richtman gave credence to the rumor on his Patreon page, saying, “The Riddick sequel now moving forward, they want Karl Urban back as villain.” Urban has been in the series since 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick, where he debuted as Siberius Vaako, and he returned for a cameo in 2013’s Riddick. The decision to bring Urban back makes sense, considering his current popularity on The Boys. Diesel previously announced in July of 2019 that David Twohy, who created the franchise and directed the first three films, had finished writing the script for Riddick 4: Furya.
To be fair, Richtman’s reveal shouldn’t be surprising, considering how Diesel has continuously pushed for sequels to Pitch Black. Diesel was an integral part of getting The Chronicles of Riddick made, and it was Diesel’s box office success in the 2010s that made Riddick a viable option. Again, Diesel has been pushing for yet another film in the Chronicles of Riddick franchise since right after Riddick came out.
Besides Diesel’s increasing popularity thanks in large part to the Fast and Furious franchise, the Chronicles of Riddick have been able to continue due to strong DVD sales over the years, so it’ll be curious if the industry’s turn away from physical media will hurt The Chronicles of Riddick’s future beyond Riddick 4: Furya. The franchise has always been a modest success, with Pitch Black making $53 million worldwide against a $23 million budget. More questionable was the most expensive film in the series, The Chronicles of Riddick, which cost $105 million to make, but only made $115 worldwide. The most recent installment, Riddick, made $98 million worldwide, but with a $38 million budget.
The Chronicles of Riddick have even stretched into further media, including two video games, 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and 2009’s The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, several motion comics, and novels written by Frank Lauria and Alan Dean Foster. Twohy and Diesel have even said they wanted to make a TV series, entitled Merc City, that would follow the Mercs and Bounty Hunters of the series, but nothing became of that as of yet.
Diesel will likely have more time to play in the Chronicles of Riddick universe, considering he has said that the upcoming Fast & Furious 10 will supposedly be the end of the franchise. Understandably, Diesel probably wants another sure-thing franchise he can sink his teeth into, even though he is already in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Groot and will be appearing in Avatar 2 and Avatar 3, which is currently filming. But if the last two decades of the Chronicles material have proven anything, it’s that Vin Diesel is more than happy to make time to play this character at any time again.
