Vin Diesel Used His ‘Tokyo Drift’ Cameo To Barter for His Passion Project

The Big Picture

• Vin Diesel’s passion for the Riddick character led him to take significant risks, including leveraging his own house, to ensure the continuation of the franchise.
• Diesel’s involvement in the Fast and Furious franchise, starting with his cameo in Tokyo Drift, allowed him to shape the narrative and direction of the series.
• Riddick’s return to its roots in the film of the same name was a result of Diesel’s desire to bring back the gritty fight scenes that made Pitch Black a cult classic.

Vin Diesel‘s embodied many roles throughout his career, but the biggest has to be Dom Torretto in the Fast and Furious films. What started as a simple film about racing and car-jacking slowly grew into a globe-trotting cultural phenomenon – and Diesel was at the center of it all. Dom’s signature tank tops, as well as his speeches about family, became as much a part of Diesel as Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Groot speaking his own name or The Iron Giant paying homage to Superman. There’s only one other film franchise that Diesel threw himself into with as much passion as the Fast and Furious films – and that’s the Chronicles of Riddick.

First launching in 2000 with Pitch Black, the Chronicles of Riddick films feature Diesel as the mercenary Richard B. Riddick. The only thing greater than Riddick’s combat skills is his ability to see in complete darkness; this was a byproduct of his heritage as a Furyan. Neither Pitch Black nor its sequel The Chronicles of Riddick were exactly box office hits, but they managed to launch a franchise that included a pair of video games and an extremely underrated animated short courtesy of Aeon Flux‘s Peter Chung. Riddick is also tied very closely to the Fast and Furious franchise in another way, as Diesel agreed to cameo in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift to get the rights to Riddick.

Vin Diesel Used His Growing Star Power To Get the Rights to Riddick

Believe it or not, there was a time when Vin Diesel wasn’t as connected to Fast and Furious. Though The Fast and The Furious was a box office hit, Diesel refused to return to film 2 Fast 2 Furious – despite the late, great John Singleton stepping in to direct and the offer of a $20 million payday. In an interview with #legend, Diesel explained that his choice not to return to the sequel was to avoid milking the success of the film. “Sequels had gotten such a bad name and I had started to think of that first Fast and Furious as a classic, like a Rebel Without a Cause,” he said. “I was an idealist and, to me, the script wasn’t continuing the story.” In a rather ironic twist of fate, Diesel’s next film was a sequel – The Chronicles of Riddick, which reunited him with Pitch Black co-writer/director David Twohy.

Chronicles didn’t exactly take off critically or commercially, leaving Riddick’s future up in the air. That all changed when Diesel agreed to cameo in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Instead of a salary, Diesel demanded that Universal give him and his One Race production company the rights to the Riddick character. It was clear that the character meant a great deal to Diesel; he’d spent time with Twohy shaping Riddick‘s story and even pulled money out of his own pocket to help support Riddick when it hit a financial snag. “I had to leverage my house,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the Riddick premiere. “If we didn’t finish the film, I would be homeless.” It’s rare to see an actor risk this much just to play a character again, but Diesel’s belief in Riddick paid off. Despite middling reviews, Riddick turned a profit and set the stage for the upcoming Riddick: Furya – with Twohy once again writing and directing and Diesel slipping on Riddick’s signature goggles.

Vin Diesel’s Deal Led to Him Taking a Bigger Role in Shaping His Franchise Future

Even if reviews were mixed when it came to Riddick, no one could deny that it was a return to the character’s roots. Gone was the political intrigue and massive scope of The Chronicles of Riddick, and in their place were the rough and rumble fight scenes that had made Pitch Black a cult classic. The fact that Riddick was fighting against a group of mercenaries, including future sci-fi icon Katee Sackhoff, was just the icing on top of a slice of sci-fi pulp. The lower budget helped, but so did the fact that Diesel was fully in control of where the story would go. Hollywood is littered with stories about “creative differences” leading to actors and directors departing projects, especially as film franchises grow in popularity (as well as box offices). By taking advantage of his deal to cameo in Tokyo Drift Diesel sidestepped this.

It’s an approach that Diesel has taken for his other projects; he’s served as a producer in addition to starring in films like Bloodshot and xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. Diesel even had a hand in shaping The Last Witch Hunter, as he bonded with original screenwriter Corey Goodman over their mutual love for Dungeons and Dragons. “Cory went off to write “The Last Witch Hunter” and was attempting to speak to [my] D&D character. But [he was] also attempting to set it in a modern time, which is kind of fun because. How could a D&D-influenced genre live in a Bond-like cinematic world? And that’s [just] what he did,”: Diesel told Uproxx. Work it did: a sequel is currently in progress.

Even Fast and the Furious has seen Diesel take an active role in shaping the narrative of the series, boarding the film as an executive producer while weathering disputes with Dwayne Johnson (although Fast X indicates that both men may have buried the hatchet.) And it all started with Tokyo Drift. Though it’s regarded as at the bottom of the heap, Tokyo Drift helped shape the direction of the franchise – Han Seoul-oh’s (Sung Kang) apparent death at the hands of Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) added some dramatic flair, while Diesel’s cameo led to Dom’s first speech about the importance of family. In the end, while Fast Five is the film where the Fast and Furious franchise took off, Tokyo Drift set the stage for things to come. One cameo ended up changing the trajectory of multiple franchises, thanks to Vin Diesel’s passion for Riddick.

Riddick is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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