Diesel announced the news via Instagram, offering some updates on what’s to come for his popular antihero Richard B. Riddick, and suggesting that the fourth live-action feature in the franchise will be titled Furia.
“Last night our company had a party to launch our TV division,” wrote Diesel in the caption of a photo from 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick featuring himself and Judi Dench on the set of the film. “Very exciting. Merc City is a show that will follow the Mercs and Bounty Hunters of the Riddick Universe. Next Month, DT begins writing the next Chapter in the Chronicles of Riddick … FURIA. #HappyFurianFriday”
Along with Diesel, Twohy has served as the driving force behind the franchise that began with 2000’s sci-fi horror movie Pitch Black, which first introduced Diesel as the deadly one-man army named Riddick. Twohy wrote and directed all three live-action films in the franchise, and also penned the script for the 2004 animated feature The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, among other Riddick-related projects.
Diesel has long hinted that a television series set in Riddick’s universe was a goal of his, and now it looks like that might indeed happen with the in-development Merc City series.
Although the Chronicles of Riddick franchise has never generated a bona fide blockbuster, the films have developed an active fanbase and typically make just enough money at the box office to spawn a sequel — often with a nudge (and support) from Diesel himself. All three films in the series have earned a combined $139 million in U.S. theaters and $267.3 million worldwide, in addition to successful sales in the DVD, Blu-ray, and home-entertainment markets. The last film in the series, 2013’s Riddick, cost approximately $40 million to make and earned $98.3 million worldwide in theaters and another $23 million in DVD and Blu-ray sales.
While Diesel’s character has remained the focal point of the series, past installments have featured Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love (and more recently, Skyfall) actress Judi Dench, Keith David (The Thing), Karl Urban (Star Trek), Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), and Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), among other notable supporting cast members.
