Vin Diesel has proven himself over the last two decades as an actor that really loves a franchise, so much so that ever since he made a brief cameo at the conclusion of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in 2006, he’s only appeared in three movies that weren’t part of an already-established brand.
For well over a decade, Diesel has stayed firmly within his wheelhouse and played either Dominic Toretto, Groot, Xander Cage or Richard B. Riddick. Next year’s comic book adaptation Bloodshot makes for a slight departure, but after that it looks to be back to business as usual with Fast and Furious 9 and even more sequels thanks to the actor signing on to James Cameron’s Avatar follow-ups.
While Fast and Furious has brought multi-billion dollar success that reinvented the former street-racing series as one of Hollywood’s premiere blockbuster franchises, Riddick has always seemed like the character closest to Diesel’s heart. Pitch Black marked him out as one of Hollywood’s rising action heroes almost 20 years ago, before The Chronicles of Riddick made the wrong decision entirely in trying to retrofit the Furyan antihero as the star of a space opera in the vein of Star Wars.
It was over a decade before threequel Riddick was finally made, and while it managed to turn a tidy profit at the box office, it seemed as though audiences weren’t as invested in the character as much as Vin Diesel was. A fourth installment has been rumored ever since Riddick scooped up almost over three times its budget though and sources close to We Got This Covered – the same ones who revealed that the leads in Ghostbusters 3 would be young teens, and that a Swamp Thing movie is in development, both of which have been confirmed – say that Karl Urban could be set to reprise his role as Vaako, with shooting set to begin next year.
The New Zealander, who recently solidified his credentials as a no-nonsense tough guy in Amazon’s smash-hit The Boys, played the main antagonist in The Chronicles of Riddick and made a brief cameo in the following installment, and would make a much better opponent for the chrome-domed convict in an R-rated sci-fi than he would in a PG-13 Star Wars knock-off.
Still, nothing is set in stone just yet and from what we understand, the actor may not’ve even been approached at this point. All we’ve been told is that the studio would like Urban back for Riddick 4: Furya and is hopeful that he’ll return. And as soon as we get confirmation on whether he’ll be in the film or not, we’ll be sure to let you know.
