Vin Diesel And David Twohy Planning Fourth Riddick Outing In Riddick: Furya

"Pitch Black" remains a banger. It's very early-2000s, for sure, but it's also peak Vin Diesel being a monster-killing badass. If you need a refresher, "Pitch Black" is a survival sci-fi horror movie about a transport that crashes on an alien planet where the survivors encounter deadly creatures that kill when the sun goes down. Among the ragtag group is a dangerous convict being transported by his cruel handler and so much of the movie rests on the mystery of this guy who wears goggles all the dang time.

Riddick was a perfect character for Vin Diesel, whose low, gravelly voice could really sound menacing and playful and it allowed him to fully embrace an anti-hero. Riddick is very much in the Snake Plissken mold. He's always looking out for himself, but he has a heart and can't be a complete bastard when people need him.

It also helps that his eyes are all shiny and he can see in the dark, which is a pretty big advantage when it comes to fighting aliens that live in the shadows.

The series has spawned two sequels, 2004's "The Chronicles of Riddick," a wild, big-budget "Flash Gordon"-adjacent sci-fi soap opera, and 2013's "Riddick," which attempted to go back to the roots of the first film. Neither is as successful as the first, but that doesn't mean Diesel and his constant Riddick collaborator, David Twohy, don't want to take another stab at it.

Enter "Riddick: Furya," which Twohy and Diesel are preparing to shop around at the European Film Market next week. This third sequel would see the character returning to his home planet.

According to a press release, Riddick is surprised to find the residents of his planet not only alive and having survived the Necromonger's attacks, but valiantly fighting a new enemy. Here's the official synopsis: 

In "Riddick: Furya," Riddick finally returns to his homeworld, 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.

There was one sentence of plot description that jumped out to me and it is this: "And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined."

Maybe it's all the current promo for "Fast X," but this sure sounds like family to me. Or maybe it's something even more sci-fi-weird. What if it's a bunch of Riddick clones? I don't know if even our top-tier IMAX and Dolby screens can handle multiple Vin Diesels, but if that is indeed the direction they're going here then it's a wild swing. Can't say I'm a fan of the wild swings the other sequels have taken, but at this point, the mystique of Riddick as a character is long gone, so if they're going to make more, then bring on the weird ideas, I say. 

David Twohy will once again direct, and Diesel will star and produce under his One Race Films company.