Riddick: Furya is finally moving forward, marking the long-awaited return of Vin Diesel’s iconic antihero to the big screen. Nearly 25 years after Pitch Black introduced audiences to the ruthless survivor with surgically enhanced eyes, the fourth film in the Riddick franchise promises to expand the series’ mythology by taking the character back to his home world. After years of delays and teases, Riddick: Furya now appears closer than ever to becoming a reality.
Nearly 25 years later, Riddick: Furya will serve as the fourth film in the franchise, which has also expanded into video games and an animated short. Discussions around the sequel began as early as 2016, when Vin Diesel took to Facebook to announce that production on The Chronicles of Riddick: Furia was targeting a 2017 start.
“I couldn't have done Riddick [before], because I just had (his daughter) Pauline nine months ago, so whenever I'm a fresh dad, I can't go to that dark place. But, if you give me a little time, if you let me make sure all my little angels are walking, 12 months to get us all lined up, we could be looking at starting Riddick early 2017,” he said. “It does take me a while. I usually have to go to the woods for five months."
Diesel was joined by David Twohy, the writer of all three of the previous Riddick movies, on the video, which saw the star tease that the movie would be a “little more expansive in its mythology,” while Twohy was keen to stress “it will be rated R.”
The inclusion of “Furya”, the name of Riddick’s home planet, in the title of this latest movie was also seen as telling, suggesting this next installment would see the character finally return to his homeland.
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Vin Diesel’s Riddick: Furya - Everything We Know So Far
Despite announcing plans for filming to commence in 2017, the project lay dormant for the next couple of years, with Diesel likely tied up with work on the Fast and Furious movies. That was until 2019, when Diesel once again took to social media with an update.
The actor posted a picture of the Twohy’s finished script to his Instagram account. Plot details still remained scarce at this point, save for a proverb written on the front of Twohy’s script, which read: “Everyone wants to be a beast until it’s time to do what real beasts do.”
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The next update came in May 2022, with Diesel sharing storyboard images from the film that depicted Riddick in a spacesuit. “Finally got a chance to see some of the new Riddick materials that DT sent over. Wow, exciting is an understatement. FURYA!” he wrote alongside it.
Even then, there were question marks over whether the Riddick sequel would see the light of day. However, everything changed in 2023 when it was formally announced that Diesel and Twohy would be returning for the long-awaited sequel. More importantly, for fans, the announcement, made via Deadline, included crucial plot details for the upcoming film.
The brief synopsis read: “Riddick finally returns to his home world, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins by the Necromongers. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new enemy. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.”
Twohy offered further clues of how the film might take shape, telling Deadline: “Our legion fans have demanded it for years, and now we’re finally ready to honor their call to action with Riddick: Furya,” Twohy said. “My collaboration with Vin and One Race has spanned 20 fruitful years, as together we’ve created three movies, two video games, an anime production, and motion comics for the internet. This new big-screen event will see a return to Riddick’s homeworld, where we finally get to explore Riddick’s genesis.”
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Riddick: Furya Filming Update
Principal photography on the movie began in August, with the sequel filming in Germany, Spain, and the U.K. Production is ongoing, with Diesel posting regular updates to social media. One post depicted the actor, as Riddick, in a blue, shadowy, cave setting, rumored to be in Spain, while another showed Diesel and Twohy working on the script together.
The fact that Riddick lives on as a franchise is largely down to Diesel’s refusal to give up on the character. After emerging as the breakout character from David Twohy’s sci-fi thriller Pitch Black, which he co-wrote with Ken and Jim Wheat, Riddick carried huge expectations into the ambitious sequel The Chronicles of Riddick. Instead, the film shifted toward a more mainstream tone with toned-down violence and ultimately underperformed, despite its $100 million budget and an A-list cast that included Thandiwe Newton, Judi Dench, and Karl Urban.
Most assumed that was the end of the character, but Diesel had other ideas, striking up a deal with Universal that saw him regain the rights to the character in exchange for a cameo appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. That appearance proved to be something of a blessing for Diesel, too, with the actor eventually returning to the driving franchise where he made his name.
From there, he re-teamed with Twohy again for Riddick, a stripped-back sequel that shared more of the R-rated sensibilities of Pitch Black. While it didn’t dominate the box office, strong DVD sales, positive word of mouth, and a string of well-received games and animated movies have built the franchise’s momentum, making this latest entry one of the most highly anticipated yet. Given everything they have learned from the franchise to date, fans are expecting another down-and-dirty affair full of the kind of violent thrills associated with the character.
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Riddick: Furya Release Date — When Could It Arrive?
It’s unclear as yet when fans can expect to see Riddick: Furya. A lot may hinge on Diesel’s involvement in Fast and Furious XI, expected to be the franchise’s final chapter. The high-octane sequel, originally set for an earlier release, is now scheduled for 2026.
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