When Ark 2 was unveiled and it was revealed that Vin Diesel was to be involved in the project, it somewhat surprised many to see the Fast and Furious actor interested in a survival video game featuring dinosaurs. But the reason behind Diesel's involvement seems to revolve around the fact that the actor really enjoys playing Ark, something Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz explained to PC Gamer.
When asked about Diesel's love for Ark, Stieglitz emphasised: "Diesel, at the time especially, played a very large amount of Ark. In the Survival Evolved days, he played it as much as any Ark pro player would. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours. Him and his kids, his partner, [they were] really good at the game. They played all the maps, they knew all the bugs, they knew all the exploits. They had their own tribe."
Stieglitz does then go on to discuss how Diesel's Ark 2 character will fit into the game, explaining that the character of Santiago actually existed before Diesel became involved and that it was adjusted to suit the actor's archetype. It's mentioned that "the character was originally written as, like, a nerd, and we're like... yeah, that ain't gonna work. He's gonna be a really buff, awesome nerd who can punch out anybody?"
All of this being said, it doesn't seem like Diesel will actually be all too involved in Ark 2 whenever it does arrive, as we're also told that only a handful of lines have been recorded by the actor, most of which are for the teaser trailer and the animated series. This may change as work on Ark 2 progresses, but judging by Stieglitz comments so far, there aren't lines and lines of Diesel voice lines hidden away somewhere just waiting to be used.