Main Character
Richard B. Riddick
Played By: Vin Diesel
Voiced By: Vin Diesel
Appearances: Escape from Butcher Bay | Assault on Dark Athena | Pitch Black | Dark Fury | The Chronicles of Riddick | Riddick
- "They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake."
The protagonist of the series. He is shown to be a highly skilled predator, extremely mobile and stealthy, has a vast knowledge of how to kill almost any humanoid in a variety of ways, is an extreme survivalist, and is notoriously hard to contain. He is also self-admittedly a dangerous convict and murderer, yet despite this, he is sometimes shown to perform moral or even atypically heroic actions, usually against his own better judgment and survivalist nature. Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a warrior race obliterated by a military campaign that left Furya desolate, and is one of the last of his kind. One of his most defining features are his eyes, a characteristic inherent in a certain caste of his species (The Alpha-Furyans), although he implies in Pitch Black that they were "shined" by a back-alley surgical operation. The truth? This allows him to see in the dark with no difficulty at all, but also renders his eyes incredibly sensitive to concentrated light, therefore he wears tinted welding goggles for protection. Riddick was once a mercenary, then part of a security force, and later on a soldier. He is also an experienced pilot.
- '90s Anti-Hero: Riddick is a notorious criminal and mercenary with superhuman attributes and a fondness for knives. He prefers to look out for himself first and foremost but often finds himself playing the hero against his better judgment. It helps that his enemies are often far worse than he is.
- Alliterative Name: Save for the 'B' that separates Richard and Riddick.
- Ambiguously Brown: Like his actor, Riddick appears to be half-black.
- Anti-Hero: Either an Unscrupulous Hero or a Nominal Hero.
- Ax-Crazy: A high-functioning example, but he's way too calm about his habit of gutting the people who try to fight him for him to seem fully in his right mind.
- Badass Boast: He gets more than a few."I'll kill you with my teacup.""I bow to no man.""Sister, they don't know what to do with just one of me."
- Bald Head of Toughness: Riddick has Vin Diesel's legendary dome and is as tough as the characters Diesel is known for playing.
- Bond One-Liner: He sometimes slips in a comment after killing someone.
- Byronic Hero: He's a fairly comtemplative man, one who broods and kills almost in equal measure.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Adding to his anti-hero image, Riddick has been shown doing or saying things that would be considered perverted, and they are rarely Played for Laughs. However, befitting his standards, he has never been shown doing anything overtly sexual against women without consent.
- He is shown smelling Carolyn Fry and Dame Vaako when they got close.
- He made sexually suggestive comments towards Dahl and a female mercenary working for Toombs.
- While sneaking into Zhylaw's ship he bumped into Dame Vaako in a suggestive manner, something which nearly blew his cover if not for her personal agendas.
- While sneaking in on her to steal her mirror, Riddick peeked in on Dahl while she was naked and later told it to her. He also told the above mentioned female mercenary that he was watching her while she slept. He might have also peeked in on Imam's wife in shower as well.
- The Chosen One: It turns out he was the Furyan destined to kill the Lord Marshall and therefore become the new leader of the Necromongers.
- Combat Pragmatist: Part of what makes him deadly is his natural fighting skill, but the other part is the fact that he's keenly aware of how to use every environment to his advantage.
- Cool Shades: His signature goggles to protect his sensitive eyesight.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's got an incredibly dry wit and a pitch-black sense of humor.
- Devious Daggers: He is a very morally-ambiguous man who prefers to fight with knives.
- Disc-One Final Boss: In Pitch Black, he appears to be the main villain planning to kill off the crew one by one, when he is caught it turns out the real threat is someone else.
- Doom Magnet: Even when he's not the culprit, people have a bad habit of dying around him. Lampshaded in Assault on Dark Athena.Riddick: People I help tend to end up dead.
- Everyone Has Standards: While a ruthless killer and notorious convict, despite his brutal reputation, Riddick has never been shown to kill anyone who was not actively trying to at least capture if not outright kill him first.
- Fluffy Tamer: Riddick is good at reading dangerous animals' body language, mimicking their movements, and (at least for dog-like ones) at winning their respect. He claims that animals sense the animal in him.
- Friend to All Children: He has a soft spot for children; this was how Johns nabbed him in the first place, by exposing this weakness.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: According to the Pitch Black novelization, Riddick joined the military of the planet he grew up on when he turned eighteen. He had to learn to avoid the dangerous wildlife on the planet during field missions. Of course, he later became a dangerous escaped convict.
- Genius Bruiser: He might be built like a tank made of other tanks, but there's a big brain under that bald dome. Riddick is patient, calculating, observant and highly strategic.
- Handicapped Badass: Is extremely photo-sensitive requiring him to wear goggles, and is left vulnerable when they are taken away from him if not entirely helpless, although he coped without them in the relatively dim light of the Necromonger flagship.
- Hero with an F in Good: He is a full-grown Satisfied Street Rat — a vicious and remorseless human predator who has killed hundreds of people at torture range. What makes him a "hero" is that though he shows no remorse for the people he's killed, he has no interest in killing those who cannot defend themselves, has never been shown killing anyone who wasn't in some way trying to kill or capture him first, finds children to be amusing distractions (especially since those feelings are usually returned), and treats those that do kill the defenseless as animals. He thus finds himself regularly rescuing loads and loads of people by accident despite never intending to.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may be an unrepentant murderer, but he does have signs that there is a good side to him.
- Last of His Kind: One of the last Furyans, a warrior species that's an offshoot of humanity. The Necromongers killed the rest of them.
- Made of Iron: Riddick has been shown temporarily dislocating his own limbs, getting back up after being stabbed in the chest after taking a beating from the Lord Marshall, and was only knocked down with four doses of horse tranquiliser (and even those doses only stopped his current charge; one of his current opponents had to hit him in the head to actually knock him out).
- Naytheist: He claims so, although it could be just a way to speak."I absolutely believe in God. And I absolutely hate the fucker."
- Noble Demon: Riddick might be an unrepentant murderer and criminal, but he nonetheless holds himself to certain standards, including a refusal to kill children, a lack of interest in rape, and never shown killing anyone who wasn't actively trying to kill him.
- Granted, he will choose not to save others if he doesn't need them unless given sufficient incentive, but there is a distinction between not going back for someone in a dangerous situation and deliberately throwing innocents to the wolves to save his own neck.
- Not Me This Time: When Zeke is killed."Did I kill a few people? Sure. Did I kill Zeke? No. You got the wrong killer."
- Orcus on His Throne: Although his victory over the previous Lord Marshall leaves him in command of the Necromongers, the focus on his life dealing with members of his court and command staff suggests that he is not actively pursuing their goal to scour the universe of all life.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Again, a few.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The series has made a point that Riddick has a severe distaste for rapists.
- Sherlock Scan: He's able to look at a situation, size things up, and go from there. An example would be when he accurately describes the prison guards' plans to leave.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: He sports uniquely monochromatic silvery eyes that no longer show either a pupil or an ordinary iris, and greatly enhance his light reception (often painfully, hence why he is almost always seen wearing goggles). Several characters have commented on them throughout the franchise.
- With My Hands Tied: On two occasions villains have taunted Riddick when they had his hands bound. He killed them by using his legs instead.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Goes hand-in-hand with being a Friend to All Children.
- Younger Than They Look: Riddick is identified as being 30 years old in the second film while Diesel was 37 at the time of the release, which would mean the character was 25 during Pitch Black while the actor was 33. This isn't that noticeable, but Riddick was released when Diesel was 46 and set five years after the second film, meaning that Riddick looked a decade older than he should have. While somewhat justifiable in the first two films since Riddick has lived a difficult life and wouldn't really care about his looks, making it realistic that he would look older, in the third film he has spent the last five years in pretty much luxury.