There are few people in the business who love a franchise more than Vin Diesel, but the self-proclaimed Tolkien of Tank Tops is going to have more free time in his schedule than he has for decades when the Fast & Furious saga finally draws to a close once the concluding two chapters are done and dusted.
After that, he’s set to finally get the ball rolling on that fourth Riddick movie he’d been hyping up for a decade without actually having anything to show for it, but there’s an even more ambitious undertaking Diesel has been talking up for even longer that seems incredibly unlikely to ever come to fruition.
Since 2002, the actor and producer has constantly been telling anyone who’d listen that he was planning to not just star, but also direct a trilogy of historical epics following the exploits of Hannibal Barca, one of the most successful and feared generals-cum-conquerors there’s ever been. One big budget trip into the past is a risky proposition as it is, but three of them? All directed by Vin Diesel? That’s something else entirely.
To be fair, the longtime Dominic Toretto was reiterating his desires for the Hannibal triptych as recently as last year, so it’s not as though he’s given up on it entirely. On the other side of the coin, is anyone going to be willing to fund such a colossal undertaking? Diesel might have starred in plenty of box office successes, but he’s also headlined a number of catastrophic bombs, too, so you might be best crossing your fingers for sequels to The Last Witch Hunter, The Pacifier, or Bloodshot instead.