When Will Riddick 4 Happen?

Action icon Vin Diesel spent much of the '90s playing the part of struggling actor trying to catch a break. That break didn't come until 1998, when Steven Spielberg tabbed him for a key supporting role in his World War II epic Saving Private Ryan (via IMDb). And even in a supporting capacity, moviegoers quickly recognized the beefy actor's potential for action movie stardom. A couple years later, Diesel fulfilled that potential in an actioner that ended up launching his very first franchise.

That film was not 2001's gear-headed testosterone-fest The Fast and the Furious. Rather, it was David Twohy's cult classic sci-fi marvel Pitch Black, which hit theaters a year prior. Though it did so with far less fanfare, even Fast and Furious diehards would have to admit Pitch Black is the far superior film. It may even have launched a superior (if less lucrative) franchise. And purely in terms of cinematic style and wildly original myth-making, the Riddick Trilogy — 2000's Pitch Black, 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick, and 2013's Riddick — bests The Fast and Furious films in virtually every way.

Equal parts space-bound B-movie adventure and pseudo steampunk fever dream, the Riddick flicks also provide a more intriguing showcase for Diesel's talent. And the actor has truly reveled in the morally complex role of a night-visioned Furyan criminal who's, so far, battled flesh-hungry creatures, humanity-hating religious zealots, and dodgy mercenaries aplenty, on a desperate mission to return to the home planet he's never known. He'll finally find planet Furya if and when the long-delayed fourth chapter of the Riddick saga hits theaters. The good news is Riddick 4 is still very much in the works, with David Twohy and Vin Diesel planning their returns. As for when Riddick 4 will happen, well, that's a bit more complicated.

That new Riddick flick is tentatively titled Furya, and those who've been obsessively charting its production know it was actually supposed to happen a couple of years ago. Diesel and Twohy first teased Furya in 2015 via a Facebook post claiming they were planning to shoot the movie sometime in 2017. But talking about making a movie and getting a movie made are very different things — especially when you're dealing with an in-demand talent like Diesel.

Sure enough, 2017 passed with no Furya news, as did 2018, leaving Riddick fans to wonder if it would happen at all. Given Diesel's busy schedule, that fear seemed founded. Luckily, the star put such fears to rest in 2019 via an Instagram post proclaiming the Furya script was finished, even showing off a physical copy of the artifact as proof. But then another year passed with no updates. As reported by HeyYouGuys, this time delays were due to Twohy touching up the script, which he finally delivered to Diesel in the summer of 2020. 

Per Twohy, Diesel "loves" the new draft, and Riddick 4 is slate to start shooting sometime in 2021, although no filming date has been announced. And with Vin Diesel prepping to return to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise later this year, Riddick 4 would likely need to shoot sooner rather than later if the star wants to wrap it ahead of his MCU return. Likewise, Diesel will almost certainly be eager to shoot Furya before the presumed 2022 shoot for Fast and Furious 10. So, if Diesel and Twohy can't squeeze the Riddick 4 shoot in before those high-profile productions, it could be years before they have another shot, which may well leave the fate of the franchise in jeopardy.