The Chronicles of Riddick is an American science fiction-horror and action media franchise created by brothers Ken and Jim Wheat and later continued by writer-director David Twohy. It follows the adventures of antihero character Riddick (either portrayed or voiced by Vin Diesel) in the 28th century.

The film series began with the release of Pitch Black (2000), which was written by director Twohy and brothers Ken and Jim Wheat from a story by the latter brothers. Since then, Twohy has solely written and directed two sequels, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) and Riddick (2013), and was involved in the development of the storyline of a number of the series' offshoots.

In addition to the feature films, The Chronicles of Riddick fictional universe includes an animated short film and several video games, motion comics, and novelizations. A fourth film, entitled Riddick: Furya, is in development.

Films Film U.S. release date Director(s) Screenwriter(s)Story by Producer(s) Pitch Black David Twohy Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat & David TwohyJim Wheat & Ken Wheat Tom Engelman The Chronicles of Riddick David Twohy Vin Diesel & Scott Kroopf Riddick Ted Field & Vin Diesel Riddick: Furya Vin Diesel, Lars Sylvest, Joe Neurauter, Samantha Vincent & Thorsten Schumacher Pitch Black (2000)

Riddick is transported to prison on the Hunter Gratzner, a commercial cargo spaceship. When the craft is damaged in the wake of a comet and makes an emergency crash landing on an isolated desert planet, Riddick escapes. However, when flying creatures begin attacking all the survivors, Riddick joins forces with the others to escape the planet.

After the release of the sequel titled The Chronicles of Riddick, this film has been referred to as The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black in subsequent home video re-releases.

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

Five years after the events of Pitch Black, Riddick evades bounty hunters and learns of a warrior army known as "The Necromongers". He is captured and sent to the prison planet Crematoria, where he reunites with Jack from the first film. Riddick escapes and battles with the Necromonger fleet, which ends with the defeat of the Lord Marshal and Riddick taking his place.

Riddick (2013)

In 2006, Vin Diesel agreed to make a cameo in Universal's film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in exchange for the ownership to the rights to the Riddick character. Encouraged by high DVD sales and Diesel's newly restored box office success, David Twohy wrote a script for a third film in the Riddick series. The film was produced by Media Rights Capital and distributed by Universal, and was released on September 6, 2013.

Betrayed and left for dead by the Necromongers on a desolate planet, Riddick is forced to fight for survival against alien predators. He eventually realizes that an approaching storm will kill him and he must rely on mercenaries to escape.

Riddick: Furya (TBA) In January 2014, Diesel announced on his Facebook page that Universal wished to develop a fourth Riddick film, again prompted by robust DVD sales of the most recent film in the series. In April 2016, Vin Diesel confirmed that he and writer-director David Twohy were developing a fourth Riddick movie titled The Chronicles of Riddick: Furya. In May 2016, he explained that production on The Chronicles of Riddick: Furya may begin in early 2017. In a video, Vin Diesel asked: "Are you guys excited to hear about Furya? Do you want to know where it all began with that dark character Riddick?". David Twohy confirmed that the new film would be rated R. On 21 July 2019, Diesel announced on his Instagram that he had received Twohy's script for Riddick 4: Furya. In May 2022, an Instagram post from Vin Diesel also suggested that pre-production has moved on to the storyboarding phase. The film was officially announced as Riddick: Furya in February 2023 with Twohy set to write and direct, and Diesel set to reprise his role.

Short animated film The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004)

Dark Fury, an anime-inspired made-for-DVD animated film, acts as a bridge between the live-action films of Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. It takes place shortly after Pitch Black and involves Riddick and the other two survivors of Pitch Black, Jack and Imam, and their run-in with a mercenary ship, as well as its captain who wishes to keep Riddick frozen as part of her collection of warriors from around the universe. It received mixed reviews.

Video games

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004)

Escape from Butcher Bay is a video game based on the Riddick series, released for the Xbox and Windows PC. It acts as a prequel to Pitch Black, and involves Riddick's escape from the eponymous prison, Butcher Bay. It was well received and is often listed among the greatest video games.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2009)

Assault on Dark Athena is a video game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, and Mac OS X computers. It includes an enhanced remake of Escape from Butcher Bay, and covers events between the previous game and Pitch Black. Reviews were mostly positive.

Riddick: The Merc Files (2013) Riddick: The Merc Files is a touch-based stealth action game for Android and iOS devices. It was developed by Gaming Corps, a game developer founded by some of the original developers of the previous Riddick games.

Television Into Pitch Black (2000) Into Pitch Black is a Syfy (formerly The Sci-Fi Channel) special which takes place before and after the events of Pitch Black. It mixes clips from Pitch Black into sequences focusing on a psychologist who studied Riddick in prison, the doctor who gave him his "eyeshine" ability, and a Lawman hiring a female mercenary to track Riddick months after Pitch Black. It shows several inconsistencies with the official storyline of the later sequels and video games and is non-canonical.

Future In June 2004, David Twohy announced that he was writing the story basis for a SyFy television film/pilot episode for a proposed television series based on the Riddick character Kyra.

In December 2015, Diesel announced on his Instagram account that both he and Twohy developed a TV series titled Merc City that will follow the Mercs and Bounty Hunters of the Riddick franchise.

Novels Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick have received novelizations of their scripts, by Frank Lauria and Alan Dean Foster respectively. These expand on elements of the films, most notably Pitch Black providing character backstory for Riddick and The Chronicles of Riddick describing the Necromongers and their religion in greater detail.

Pitch Black (2000) The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

Motion comics Pitch Black: Slam City (2000) Pitch Black: Slam City is a short motion comic prequel to Pitch Black by animator Brian Murray with David Twohy which had been available for download at the Pitch Black website. Slam City is in the form of an official, confidential prison record detailing Riddick's arrival and escape from the Ursa Luna Slam City facility, in eleven hours and twenty-two minutes. Notably, it shows Riddick undergoing the surgery that gives him "eyeshine"—the ability to see in the dark—and paying for this with a pack of Kool cigarettes, as mentioned in Pitch Black. William J. Johns is seen at the end of the film being charged with capturing Riddick.

Riddick: Blindsided (2013) Riddick: Blindsided is a motion comic based on storyboarded scenes of the third film that didn't make the theatrical cut. It takes place shortly before the events of Riddick and bridges that film with the previous one. The director's cut of Riddick reinserts most of the material covered in Blindsided back into the film. It was released online a month before the release of the third film to generate buzzMcMillan, Graeme (2013-07-29). " 'Riddick' Gets 'Blindsided' with Movie Prequel Motion Comic." HollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved 2014-02-06. and it is also included with the movie's home video release.Rawden, Jessica (2013-11-17). "Riddick and Riddick: The Complete Collection Hitting Blu-Ray and DVD in January." CinemaBlend.com. Retrieved 2014-02-06.

Cast and crew Cast Character Films Pitch Black The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury The Chronicles of Riddick Riddick 2000 2004 2004 2013 Richard B. Riddick Vin Diesel Jack B. Badd / Kyra Rhiana Griffith Alexa Davalos Abu "Imam" al-Walid Keith David Carolyn Fry Radha Mitchell William J. Johns Cole Hauser Paris P. Ogilvie Lewis Fitz-Gerald Sharon "Shazza" MontgomeryClaudia BlackJohn "Zeke" EzekielJohn MooreGreg OwensSimon Burke Alexander Toombs Nick Chinlund Junner Roger L. Jackson Antonia Chillingsworth Tress MacNeille Siberius Vaako Karl Urban Zhylaw / Lord Marshal Colm Feore Aereon Judi Dench Dame Vaako Thandiwe Newton Purifier Linus RoacheThe GuvYorick van WageningenLajjunKim HawthorneEve LoganChristina Cox Colonel R. "Boss" Johns Matt Nable Santana Jordi Mollà Dahl Katee Sackhoff Diaz Dave Bautista Moss Bokeem WoodbineLockspurRaoul TrujilloVargasConrad PlaLunaNolan Gerard FunkKroneAndreas Apergis

Crew Role Film Pitch Black The Chronicles of Riddick Riddick Riddick: Furya 2000 2004 2013 TBA Director David Twohy Producer(s) Tom Engelman Vin Diesel & Scott Kroopf Vin Diesel & Ted Field Vin Diesel & Samantha Vincent Writer(s) Ken Wheats, Jim Wheats & David Twohy David Twohy Composer(s) Graeme Revell TBA Cinematographer(s) David Eggby Hugh Johnson David Eggby TBA Editor(s) Rick Shane Tracy Adams, Martin Hunter & Dennis Virkler Tracy Adams TBA Production company(s) Gramercy PicturesInterscope CommunicationsPolygram Filmed Entertainment Radar PicturesOne Race Films TBA Distributor USA Films Universal Pictures Runtime 109 minutes 135 minutes 119 minutes TBA Release date February 18, 2000 June 11, 2004 September 6, 2013 TBA

Characters Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel), more commonly known as Riddick, is the protagonist of the series. He is shown to be a highly skilled predator, extremely mobile and stealthy, has a vast knowledge of how to kill almost any humanoid in a variety of ways, is an extreme survivalist, and is notoriously hard to contain. He is also self-admittedly a dangerous convict and murderer, yet despite this, he is sometimes shown to perform moral or even atypically heroic actions, usually against his own better judgment and survivalist nature. Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a warrior race obliterated by a military campaign that left Furya desolate, and is one of the last of his kind. One of his most defining features are his eyes, a characteristic inherent in a certain caste of his species (The Alpha-Furyans), although he implies in Pitch Black that they were "shined" by a back-alley surgical operation. This allows him to see in the dark with no difficulty at all, but also renders his eyes incredibly sensitive to concentrated light, therefore he wears tinted welding goggles for protection. Riddick was once a mercenary, then part of a security force,The Chronicles of Riddick, Special Features and later on a soldier. He is also an experienced pilot.