After Fast 9, Vin Diesel Is Ready To Film More Riddick, Xander Cage, And Groot

Vin Diesel as Riddick

Vin Diesel and his #DadBod have a busy schedule ahead. He just wrapped Fast & Furious 9, which was the longest filming shoot of his career so far. It really did seem to go on forever! He's "immensely proud" of the results, though, which we'll see in May 2020. Now he's ready for more action in his other major franchises roles -- including Xander Cage, Richard B. Riddick, Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Bloodshot, and maybe more from Kaulder of The Last Witch Hunter.

Vin Diesel took advantage of the Thanksgiving holidays to give thanks for his family and fans and career so far. He updated everyone on what's next for him -- via a shirtless workout photo (because of course):

A photo posted by on

Let's break down what should be coming next for this action hero.

Fast and Furious 9 - release date: May 22, 2020. Vin Diesel posted videos every step of the way through the epic shoot for this film -- from scenes with John Cena and Helen Mirren to Jordana Brewster finally getting to be badass again as Mia. Plus, maybe Brian will return?

• Bloodshot - release date: February 21, 2020. Bloodshot recently shared its first trailer, and we should be hearing a lot more about the Valiant Comics superhero pretty soon. Vin Diesel has the lead role as Ray Garrison/Bloodshot, with co-stars including Eiza González, Sam Heughan, Toby Kebbell, and Guy Pearce. If the movie ends up doing well, I'm sure they'll talk about a sequel.

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - release date: Unconfirmed date in 2022. He is Groot. Groot will return with the gang when James Gunn's third Guardians movie heads to the MCU. When will that be? It was supposed to be in 2020, but Disney fired Gunn and before they rehired him he signed up to make DC's The Suicide Squad. So he's busy with that now at the end of 2019 and he'll start Guardians 3 when that's done.

Riddick 4 - release date - ??? Vin Diesel has been talking about a fourth Riddick film for a while, and earlier this year he shared a video showing off a script titled Riddick 4 Furya:

A photo posted by on

There's also been talk about a Riddick spinoff TV series called Merc City. Riddick 4 will follow Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Riddick, which came out in 2013.

• xXx 4 - release date - ??? XXX: Return of Xander Cage came out in 2017 as the third movie in the franchise. Vin Diesel is moving forward with a fourth film, and this time last year Deadline reported that actor Jay Chou and actress Zoe Zhang were cast for xXx 4. Earlier this year, Diesel asked fans who else should join the next xXx movie and got some wild responses.

Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 - release dates: December 17, 2021 and December 22, 2023. Apparently Vin Diesel has a role in James Cameron's Avatar sequels? I guess? Cameron has up to Avatar 5 planned with release dates, but Avatar 4 and 5 depend on the success of Avatar 2 and 3. Those first two sequels were filmed at the same time, and they just wrapped for 2019. It may be a while before we see a trailer and hear anything about Diesel's role.

• The Last Witch Hunter 2 - release date: ??? Not sure what's going on here, but shortly before The Last Witch Hunter came out in 2015, Vin Diesel posted to Facebook that Universal wanted him to commit and block out time to film the sequel. That was four years ago, and the movie didn't make a ton of money on its release -- $147 million worldwide, with only $27.3M from the domestic box office. But if he's bringing it up now, maybe there are still discussions going on for the future of Witch Hunter. There are only about 9 million streaming services available if they decide to go that route. Just saying.

So that's a lot. I'm excited to see Fast & Furious 9. I'm all aboard that hype train, which will also lead to Fast & Furious 10. Not 100% sure I'm ready for everything else yet -- except for Guardians 3, of course -- so we wait and see. Keep up with everything heading to the big screen next year with our 2020 movie release date schedule.

Gina Carbone

Gina grew up in Massachusetts and California in her own version of The Parent Trap. She went to three different middle schools, four high schools, and three universities -- including half a year in Perth, Western Australia. She currently lives in a small town in Maine, the kind Stephen King regularly sets terrible things in, so this may be the last you hear from her.