Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel continues to hype the comeback of another of his most famous franchises, Riddick, with the actor taking to social media to share a promising update on the proposed fourth installment. “Great meeting today, very excited about this next chapter,” Diesel said in a caption alongside an image of the titular antihero.

While not too much is yet known about the sequel, it has been revealed that the project will be titled Riddick 4: Furya, and, according to Diesel himself, the storyline will delve into the mysterious origins of the highly skilled Furyan fugitive. "Are you guys excited to hear about Furia? Do you want to know where it all began with that dark character Riddick?" Diesel teased way, way back in 2015.

The action star is clearly eager to make Riddick 4: Furya happen, no matter how long it takes, and it certainly sounds more and more like his determination will pay off, with Diesel stating earlier this year that script for Riddick’s fourth outing was complete, and that franchise director David Twohy will return alongside Diesel in the lead. "[Director] David Twohy, he wrote a great script,” Diesel said back in June. “It's just a matter of timing when we get that opportunity to shoot that. But I believe we're shooting that in Australia. And it would be the fourth chapter in that series, which would be awesome. We did have great success with Escape From Butcher Bay. It feels like an eternity ago now. But, I imagine that we would take advantage of the gaming space and add an extra chapter, but definitely, the [movie's] script is already written. So it's safe to say that we are moving towards filming the fourth chapter of Riddick."

Riddick began life as the enigmatic villain/antihero of 2000’s superb sci-fi horror outing, Pitch Black. Starring Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Keith David alongside Diesel, audiences are introduced to dangerous criminal Richard B. Riddick, who is being transported to prison in a spacecraft. When the spaceship is damaged, the crew is forced to make an emergency crash landing on an empty desert planet inhabited by predatory alien creatures. The monstrous creatures can only survive in the dark, and while this would ordinarily be good news, the planet’s three suns are about to set and plunge the planet into, you guessed it, pitch black. And so, Riddick joins forces with the surviving crew and other passengers to develop a plan to survive and escape.

Riddick proved to be hugely popular with audiences and thus a sequel was put into development in the form of 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick. The scope of the universe changed drastically in the follow-up, introducing audiences to a science fiction world much more complex than that of Pitch Black. Unfortunately, the movie received negative reviews and was a box office flop, with the third sequel, Riddick, reverting back to the more insular story of the first installment and giving fans more of what they expected from the further adventures of the mercenary with shiny eyes.

We will have to wait and see which direction Riddick 4: Furya chooses, but until then Vin Diesel first returning to the role of Dominic Toretto and wrapping up the Fast and Furious franchise with two final sequels, the first of which is due for release on April 7, 2023.