Vin Diesel teases his Hannibal the Conqueror trilogy with an Instagram post. Diesel of course is best known for his work in action-packed franchise movies like the Fast and the Furious saga, xXx and Guardians of the Galaxy. But the actor is nothing if not ambitious, and over the years he’s also worked to realize a few dream projects that perhaps aren’t such obvious commercial ventures.

Indeed, the biggest dream project of Diesel’s to thus far make it to screens was his Riddick trilogy, which began with 2000’s Pitch Black – the movie that introduced Diesel’s outer space anti-hero character – and continued with 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick, wrapping up with 2013’s Riddick. Of course, Diesel is not done with Riddick and plans two more films that would take the character back to his home world of Furya. On the more earthly side of things, Diesel has also over the years expressed his desire to make a trilogy about Hannibal, the Carthaginian general most famous for crossing the Alps with elephants in order to attack Rome.

Despite Diesel’s obvious enthusiasm for the epic story of Hannibal, the actor thus far has been unable to get anything serious going regarding the trilogy project. But that clearly won’t deter Diesel, who just took to Instagram to once again tease his Hannibal the Conqueror ambitions. See his post in the space below:


The image of Diesel himself carrying a surfboard doesn’t appear to have any connection to his Hannibal plans, but the caption indeed teases the project while also making mention of Barca B.C., which was the title of a Punic Wars MMO video game Diesel at one time also talked about wanting to produce. Barca is in fact a surname sometimes used in connection with Hannibal’s father Hamilcar and his brothers Hasdrubal and Mago, but is rarely added to Hannibal’s own name.

Diesel's interest in making a film based on the Hannibal story in fact goes back well over a decade, but it wasn't until 2012 that the actor first teased that he might have studio interest in the trilogy, which he talked about directing himself. In 2014, Diesel again teased that progress was being made on the film, but again there was no hard news. Diesel was still giving vague updates as late as 2017, at which time it was reported that the actor wanted Denzel Washington to star as Hannibal's father.

Clearly, Diesel is passionate about the idea of bringing Hannibal the Conqueror to screens, but it remains to be seen if his latest tease means there’s genuine news coming, or if he’s just keeping the idea alive for fans without any real plans being in the works. Though an entire trilogy about Hannibal seems like a long shot to ever make it to theater screens with studio backing, it’s perhaps not unthinkable that a streaming service could get behind the idea, given some of the big prestige projects that have gone that route in recent years. At any rate, it’s never a great idea to dismiss Diesel when he pushes a project, as he proved by making his Riddick trilogy happen despite a decided lack of enthusiasm for the character from audiences and critics.