10 Actors Who Made Ridiculous Movie Demands So They Wouldn't Be Hired... But Were

Nobody could've ever anticipated the trajectory of the Fast and the Furious franchise, which had several early, potentially series-derailing hiccups, such as star Vin Diesel opting not to return for the second film, 2 Fast 2 Furious.

By the time the third film was going into production, neither Diesel nor Paul Walker were anywhere to be seen, and with the focus now on a younger cast, it seemed like the franchise was destined to flame out sooner rather than later.

Test screenings shook Universal's faith in the IP enough that they ended up reaching out to Diesel, practically begging him to shoot a cameo role to be incorporated into the film's final scene.

Diesel, who was effectively out of the franchise by this point and seemingly assumed it was a dying horse like most everyone else, agreed to film the cameo on one condition.

Rather than ask for money, Diesel demanded that Universal relinquish ownership over the Riddick franchise, allowing the actor to make his own movies based on the character in the future.

Considering that Universal had spent $120 million on The Chronicles of Riddick just two years earlier, giving up the IP was a titanic ask, and yet Universal ultimately ended up accepting Diesel's terms.

Given that The Chronicles of Riddick was a major box office bomb, Universal hedged their bets that it was more financially worthwhile to have Diesel inject some life back into the Fast and the Furious series, and they were absolutely right.

Diesel went on to make a third Riddick film in 2013, which with a more sensible $38 million budget was a modest commercial success. With The Fast and the Furious now a billion-dollar box office behemoth, everything clearly worked out for the best.