The actor who reprised the same three roles in 29 different projects
One of the many reasons why so many actors sign on for franchise roles is not just because it promises a relatively easy payday compared to spending months preparing for a powerhouse drama but because it also has the added lure of repeat business.
Plenty of them have been accused of phoning it in, but when no less of an authority than Christopher Nolan called Marvel Studios’ hiring of Robert Downey Jr one of the most important casting decisions in the history of cinema, the sentiment clearly doesn’t apply to every big name seeking an effects-heavy sojourn.
Of course, not every effects-heavy veteran and action hero is going to be troubling the Oscars, but one of them, above all others, has turned IP into a self-sustaining art form. Sylvester Stallone has been in a mind-blowing number of sequels and spinoffs during his half-century in the spotlight, but he hasn’t got shit on Vin Diesel.
To put things into perspective, since Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was released in 1998 – which was over a quarter of a century ago, to hammer it home further – the chrome-domed nemesis of anything with sleeves has been credited in 44 live-action or animated features, TV shows, short films, and video games.
Of those 44, no less than 29 of them required him to play the same three characters over and over again. Of the other 15, two of them had him playing the same character twice. Of the remaining 13, how many of them are explicitly standalone movies, as Diesel hasn’t publicly stated his desire to make a follow-up of some sort that hasn’t yet happened?
The answer, remarkably, is six. That means since he worked with Spielberg, Diesel has made precisely half a dozen movies over the course of three decades where he didn’t have his eye on a second bite at the cherry, which is so preposterous as to almost be admirable. If the man finds a part he likes, then history has shown he’ll do everything in his power to stick with it.
As Fast & Furious figurehead Dominic Toretto, Diesel has racked up nine Fast & Furious movies (with a tenth on the way), short films and Los Bandoleros, the animated series Spy Racers, theme park attraction Supercharged, and the video game Crossroads. He’s slapped on the goggles of cosmic conflict Richard B. Riddick in three features (again, with another one on the way), animated shorts Dark Fury and Blindsided, in addition to video games Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena.
Despite never having set foot on the set of a Marvel Cinematic Universe production, Diesel has nonetheless notched a Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, a pair of Avengers crossovers, Thor: Love and Thunder, a Disney+ Holiday Special, and two seasons of animated show I Am Groot on his belt, while he even made a cameo appearance in non-Marvel sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Diesel eats, sleeps, lives, and breathes IP, but in his defence, why would he give it all up when it’s kept him gainfully employed for so long?
