The return of a beloved Vin Diesel franchise is set to happen at the perfect time. Since the original The Fast and the Furious film was released in 2001, it has gradually become one of the most profitable movie franchises of all time, earning more than $7.4 billion at the worldwide box office over the source of its 10-part series. With the upcoming Fast 11 currently being considered as the final installment of the franchise, leading man Vin Diesel will need to find another major movie series to attach to.
Diesel first got his start in Hollywood in the late 1990s, with his first notable role being Private Caparzo in Saving Private Ryan (1998). After that film’s Academy Award-winning success, Diesel became a household name through his performances in The Fast and the Furious (2001) and Pitch Black (2000), which launched the entire Chronicles of Riddick modern movie franchise. Diesel has been pushing for a resurgence of his Riddick franchise since the reboot film was released in 2013. With the end of the Fast & Furious franchise soon approaching, Diesel may finally have his opportunity.
The fourth installment of the Chronicles of Riddick franchise is set to release soon after Fast 11, which is expected to be the last Fast & Furious movie that Diesel will be a part of. Diesel has become the face of the Fast & Furious franchise over the past two decades but has been trying to establish Riddick as his main franchise for quite some time. Riddick 4, titled Riddick: Furya, is currently in pre-production and could be released as soon as 2027, one year after Fast 11, or Fast X: Part 2.
Fast 11 has experienced a number of delays, pushing back its April 4, 2025 release date to sometime in 2026. This is quite a large gap from the May 19, 2023 release date of Fast X, which significantly underperformed at the worldwide box office despite being the fifth highest-grossing movie of 2023. The extraordinarily high production budget of $379 million played a major part in Fast X’s box office woes, which made it tied for the fourth most expensive movie of all time after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
It seems unlikely that Diesel will retire from his leading man franchise role after the monumental success of the Fast & Furious franchise. Riddick 4 should become the foundation for his next major franchise, especially considering his relentless passion for the project and the box office success of 2013’s Riddick reboot. The next Riddick movie could also be made for considerably less than any of the recent Fast & Furious films, considering that 2013’s Riddick film made just under $95 million worldwide against a $38 million budget. It will be exciting to see Diesel in a new yet familiar role following his exit from the Fast & Furious franchise.