Vin Diesel’s shared universe film failure in 2020 only raises more questions about the action hero’s future after his time with the Fast & Furious franchise comes to an end. The seventh highest-grossing film series of all time with a combined gross of over $7 billion, Fast & Furious is both an incredibly popular and long-running saga. During its run, the series has gone from focusing on street racing to combining fast cars with heists and espionage. Surprisingly, one of the few things that unites the series of action films is the importance the franchise places on family.
One key member of the Fast & Furious family is Vin Diesel and his character, Dominic “Dom” Toretto. Although Diesel’s Dom appeared in the very first flick, 2001’s franchise-spawning The Fast and the Furious, he has skipped a few of the 10 Fast & Furious movies. The street racer and patriarch plays a key role in the most recent franchise film, Fast X, but the actor announced that Fast & Furious 11 would be Diesel’s last appearance as Dom. While the Fast & Furious franchise may continue without him, Vin Diesel doesn’t have an obvious movie replacement lined up.
Bloodshot Should Have Been Vin Diesel’s Fast & Furious Replacement
Based on the Valiant Comics character of the same name, 2020’s Bloodshot was meant to be Vin Diesel’s Fast & Furious replacement. Given Valiant Comics’ rich history and massive lineup of superheroes and villains, Sony had plans for launching an entire shared universe based on the comic book publisher’s works. Unfortunately, Bloodshot‘s lackluster performance not only tanked its own odds of getting a sequel, but put a damper on the studio green-lighting future cinematic universe films. If anything, Bloodshot‘s abysmal $37.3 million box office draw proved it wasn’t quite the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) competitor filmmakers had hoped.
As in the source material, Diesel’s character is a soldier who was killed in action and then brought back to life with superpowers. The organization behind former U.S. Marine Ray Garrison’s superhero rebirth wants to control him, believing that Bloodshot is the ultimate weapon. Of course, Bloodshot has his own plans, especially since he vowed revenge against the person who killed both him and his wife. While Bloodshot features old-school-style action sequences and some smart ideas that are mined from the source material, the execution just didn’t live up to the premise.
The struggles behind Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot proves that the Fast & Furious franchise is his true bread and butter. He needs it more than he thinks.
Bloodshot faced some harsh reviews upon its release, with critics slamming its formulaic, seen-it-before story. While viewers were split on the film’s approach to action sequences, the most critical pointed out that fight scenes felt both uninspired and difficult to engage with, thanks to an over-reliance on quick cuts. A poor imitation of both superior action flicks and superhero movies, Bloodshot wasn’t very memorable. Between the poor reception from critics and the film’s disappointing box-office performance, the future of the Valiant Comics cinematic universe became something of a question mark after Bloodshot hit theaters.
Released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloodshot ‘s theatrical run wasn’t set up for success.
Unsurprisingly, Bloodshot‘s lackluster performance didn’t immediately launch a new shared cinematic universe of Valiant Comics superheroes or even spawn its own sequel. The movie was meant to be followed by films based on Valiant Comics’ superheroes, including multiple movies based on Harbinger, as well as a crossover flick, Harbinger Wars. Although various film studios hold distribution rights for the many shared-universe properties, Bloodshot‘s director, David S. F. Wilson, seems confident about the future of the Valiant Comics cinematic universe (via Den of Geek). By the end of 2020, a Bloodshot sequel starring Vin Diesel was confirmed by multiple sources.
Vin Diesel Doesn’t Have A Clear Fast & Furious Replacement After Fast 11
While Diesel has seemingly lined up another outing as the titular superhero in Bloodshot, it’s clear the movie series isn’t going to be as big as Fast & Furious. The cinematic universe project may get there eventually, but it isn’t the replacement Diesel needs after Fast 11. Rumors swirled about another Chronicles of Riddick movie, though little headway has been made since the series’ 2013 outing. Plus, Riddick isn’t a Fast-level box-office smash either. Similarly, there was some talk of another Xander Cage film, but Vin Diesel hasn’t made any firm announcements regarding his post-Fast 11 plans.
Bloodshot is now streaming on Hulu; Fast X is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
