At 46, Diesel has already rebooted one franchise: The Fast and the Furious—its sixth iteration just grossed almost $800 million globally. Now he’s aiming to do the same with Riddick, out Sept. 6, in which he plays a space mercenary dropped on a hostile planet. It’s the third installment in a sci-fi series last seen in 2004. Here, he talks to TIME. TIME: You’ve now done a bunch of Riddicks and a bunch of Fast and the Furiouses. What would you say is the difference between making a one-off and making a movie that’s part of a franchise? Vin Diesel: With a one-off you just have to worry about the character for one picture; with multiple pictures you have to think about what that character does over a long period of time. None of the actor methods ever discussed what it would be like to play a character on film for over a decade, and what it must be like to return to a character and imagine the time off-screen, which is interesting. There’s something as an actor that I enjoy about evolving characters. You fight some scary aliens in Riddick. Are there any creatures that you’re scared of in real life? Huh. Uh . . . dinosaurs? I meant creatures that actually exist now. I would say King Kong, but i’m not really scared of King Kong. That would be inaccurate. So you’re basically not scared of anything, ever. That’s not at all what i’m saying. The thing I’m scared of most is not fulfilling my work. There’s so much anxiety around trying to get a movie made that you don’t really get to be afraid of anything else. (MORE: How a Smart Deal Got Vin Diesel the Rights to Riddick) There’s a line in the movie about how everyone has bad days, but this one is legendarily bad. Have you ever had a legendarily bad day? You know, i don’t even think about bad days. What about a legendarily good one? A day with my kids. A day with my kids is the best … Continue reading Vin Diesel: Franchises, Aliens and What Scares Him Most