With the fourth instalment of the Riddick franchise comes a startling truth: if the series hadn’t worked out – it did, of course, propel its star to Hollywood stardom back in 2000 – then Vin Diesel would have been out of house and home.

"If it didn't work out, I would have lost my house," Diesel revealed in an interview with MSNBC's theGrio "Everything I had in my life was leveraged to make this movie,” he added.

"The producer role - the stakes were higher than any producer I know because the skin in the game was real, and I was so committed to answering this growing request from the social media fans to continue this character. The only way I could have pulled it off was by leveraging everything."

Pitch Black wasn’t exactly a critical success, but it was enough to put Diesel into the limelight. Subsequent films haven’t enamoured reviewers either, but the latest film – simply titled Riddick – has enjoyed some critical success. If it wasn’t for Diesel having a baby, though, we would have had the film a lot sooner.

"We were initially going to try and make Riddick before I did Fast Five, and then I learned that we were expecting a child," Diesel explained. "I didn't think it would be fair to the child. I didn't think it would be fair to the fans to go to that dark place while welcoming a life into the world."

Vin DieselWe could have been looking at a Hollywood without Vin Diesel, imagine that.