Riddick: The Main Characters, Ranked By Power

Sci-fi audiences were introduced to a new kind of anti-hero with the breakout hit Pitch Black, starring Fast & The Furious lead Vin Diesel. Richard B. Riddick was a notorious murderer and criminal who found himself marooned on a hostile planet with his mercenary captor, and a group full of travelers under siege by a terrifying alien species.

Unsurprisingly, in a world of murderers and mercenaries, there are some truly powerful characters in the franchise. Some are trained killers, and others even have semi-supernatural abilities. These are the ten toughest of the bunch, ranked by their power quotient. None are to be underestimated.

10 Dahl

Dahl is far from a pushover. She’s got the skills and the might necessary to run with the toughest mercs in the galaxy, and her team-up with Boss Johns is no coincidence. She’s a capable fighter, and an even better weapons expert, able to wield a range of different guns as if they were second nature.

She’s also an expert sniper, capable of picking targets off from great distances, as she demonstrated in the 2013 Riddick film. She may lack the physical prowess necessary to tackle some of the more vicious melee fighters out there, such as Riddick or Diaz, but she makes up for it with grit.

9 Santana

Santana’s power comes largely from a mixture of his skills as a mercenary and his unpredictability. He’s violent, cunning, and manipulative, and he’ll utilize all three at the same time to get what he wants. He’s also capable of giving off a non-threatening aura, particularly if he wants opponents to think they have the upper hand.

He’s certainly not a character to be messed with, but he’s not the most dangerous foe in the franchise. This was demonstrated when a chained Riddick still managed to cleave his head in two with his own machete in just five seconds. His guile is outmatched only by his overconfidence.

8 Boss Johns

Boss Johns is the father of the original Johns character from Pitch Black, though the two aren’t exactly alike. Where the original Johns was an amoral opportunist, the elder Johns is a tough-as-nails mercenary with a code of honor and integrity.

He’s a tough nut to crack, and he leads one of the best merc teams in the galaxy, but he’s also a calculated thinker. He’s equally capable as a fighter, though he seems to be much better at delegating and strategizing with his team, rather than throwing down.

7 Kyra

Kyra was introduced as an awkward kid in the first Pitch Black film, but she blossomed by the time the second film came out. Having spent a long time in a max security prison, Kyra taught herself the killing arts necessary to overcome her smaller size so that she could overwhelm enemies with unorthodox attacks.

Kyra and Riddick ended up as a team once more, but with Kyra expressing her anger for Riddick abandoning her. She enjoyed playing “who’s the better killer” with Riddick, and she backed it up with strong fighting skills, a high degree of agility, and cunning tactics, such as hiding a razor bleed in her cheek for up-close attacks.

6 Diaz

At first, Diaz appeared to be nothing more than a strongman for Santana’s merc outfit, but he didn’t stay that way. He spent the majority of the film staying low-key, acting as backup support in case anything got hot. By the end of the film, however, he became the biggest threat on the planet next to Riddick and the Mud Demons.

Diaz was a massive oak of a man, and his size proved to be a match for Riddick’s incredible physical prowess, allowing him to subdue his target for a short time. However, size wasn’t enough, and Riddick bought enough time to take him down, putting an end to his opportunistic plans.

5 Krone

Krone was a Necromonger underling of the ambitious and deceitful Vaako, who wanted nothing more than to be Lord Marshal. After his plan to kill the original Marshal failed in The Chronicles Of Riddick, he found himself under the authority of Riddick, who “kept what he killed.”

It was never enough, and Vaako kept hoping multiple assassination plots against Riddick would one day work. Finally, he orchestrated a plan to return Riddick to his home planet Furya, in exchange for the Necromongers. He used his extremely capable and talented warrior Krone to finish Riddick off and leave him for dead. It didn’t work, but he did inflict some of the worst damage on Riddick of any character in the franchise.

4 Johns

The younger Johns was the main antagonist of Pitch Black. He started out as a seemingly benevolent mercenary hauling back the dangerous mass murderer Riddick for a long haul in prison. Though Riddick was a strong fighter, Johns was definitely just as capable of holding his own, proving himself as a powerful merc. However, as the chaos began to erupt, audiences soon learned that Johns was not who they thought he was.

In truth, he was an opportunist who was willing to use innocents as bait for the dangerous Bioraptors living on the planet M6-117 (commonly referred to as Planet Number Two). A mixture of lightning-fast combat skills, weapons proficiencies, and utter ruthlessness made Johns one of Riddick’s most deadly foes.

3 Riddick

Richard B. Riddick is one of the most notorious killers in the entire galaxy, and certainly one of the most dangerous men alive. As a native of the planet Furya, Riddick was imbued with heightened senses, strength, and killing skills that were a signature trademark of his people.

This, combined with the “shine job” on his eyes that allowed him to see in the dark makes him a capable and frightening opponent. In terms of sheer power, Riddick had few equals. His will to survive was unmatched, and his animal instincts made him fearless among everyone.

2 Aereon

At first glance, Aereon (played by the iconic Judi Dench) may appear to be nothing more than a harmless old woman, but she’s one of the most powerful beings in the Riddick universe. Not only is she a member of the Elementals, but she possesses a deep link to the currents of the galaxy that ebb and flow, including time itself.

She demonstrates these powers through the art of calculations. This gives her a form of clairvoyance based largely on probabilities, statistics, and first-hand knowledge. It was she who came up with the prophecy of the Furyan warrior that would dethrone the Lord Marshal, which turned out to be Riddick.

1 Lord Marshal Zhylaw

Few beings in the galaxy were as dangerous and deadly as Lord Marshal Zhylaw. He commanded the fearsome Necromongers in their galactic-wide campaign towards transcendence, and laid waste to countless worlds in the process. Though all Necromongers were versed in some form of the dark arts, the Lord Marshal was a cut above.

This particular villain was gifted with supernatural powers such as enhanced speed, crushing strength, and the ability to pull souls directly from the bodies of his victims. He would easily have destroyed Riddick, had it not been for the interference of Vaako, who was seeking the throne. In the end, Riddick was able to take advantage of the Lord Marshal’s one weakness – the need to phase from one point to another, to drive a perfectly timed knife straight through his skull.

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