Comic-Con 2013: ‘Riddick’ Panel

This is the one many of us have been waiting for ever since Vin Diesel first teased to fans that he'd be making an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con 2013. 'Riddick,' the latest installment in the 'Chronicles of Riddick' movies, hit Hall H on Friday, July 19 with its leading man, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Bautista and director David Twohy.

The infamous Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he’s encountered. The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty.

Writer/director David Twohy kicked off the ‘Riddick’ panel, hosted by Drew McWeeney from HitFix. Also featured were the film’s token female badass, Katee Sackoff, and of course, Vin Diesel.

Sackhoff was first introduced to the crowd with footage of her character, Doll, a mercenary who comes to this planet to hunt Riddick. While he’s the most dangerous one on the planet, she realizes he’s not the worst.

As McWeeney said, “Riddick needs no introduction,” but he got one anyway. Fans went wild for the footage of him hacking and slashing through aliens. “I think we did a good job paying off past debts,” said Twohy of ‘Riddick.’ “We settled on a survival story.”

“I think at the core of the Riddick character he’s driven by some quest for identity,” said Diesel. Though, as he pointed out, “he’s kind of mocking where he comes from for his own amusement [in 'Pitch Black'].”

Sackhoff was admittedly a fan of the franchise since she first saw ‘Pitch Black.’ “What do I need to do to get in this?,” she asked herself. “I'll do anything … pretty much.” What she loves about her character specifically, though, is that she doesn’t see any sort of weakness in her. “I loved the script, I loved the idea of it and I got to shoot really big guns.”

For a while, as Diesel recalled, ‘Riddick’ was a hard sell to studios. “We were struggling and telling the studio this is something the audience connected to.” Then Universal finally came back on board for another sequel. “One of the things we’re really proud of here is that the film maintains the tempo of ‘Pitch Black.’”

After moistening the audience’s palates, we were treated to a brand new trailer. SPOILER ALERT: People die and sometimes it’s creatively bloody – like, “kick a metal spike clean through this guy’s head while he’s still chained up” kind of creative. For the most part, however, the scenes revealed were essentially ones we’ve seen before, just more extended -- except, perhaps, the one where Diesel drives a motorcycle over a horde of aliens.

Following a Q&A with fans, the panel allowed for one last question, and it thankfully was regarding Diesel’s secret meeting with Marvel! Prior to Comic-Con, the star teased to his Facebook fans that he had a meeting with Marvel, though details have been kept under wraps.

So which Marvel character will he be playing? “What I will say, there is some very big news coming at the end of this month for Marvel!”

'Riddick' will hit theaters this September 6.