Jet Li to challenge Vin Diesel in new xXx 3 movie

Remember xXx? I do! Actually the reason I do is because it happened to be on terrestrial television just three days ago and in my usual hungover state on Sunday I was unable to move from the couch and watched the whole movie. I cringed a lot more than I did when I first saw it back in 2002, but not nearly as much as I did watching the FAILED bastard son sequel xXx State of the Union. That movie had the balls to kill off Diesel’s character (because they couldn’t afford the suddenly hot property actor) and replace him with Ice Cube… Yeah. ICE CUBE. Sigh. I’m sure the pot the producers and director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) were smoking made it all seem like a good idea at the time, trust me, it wasn’t.

Well just about everything else is being either re-made, re-imagined or re-launched, so why not a movie that sounds like it belongs at the back of a dingy video store (remember those people?) Of course we’ve known about xXx 3: The Return of Xander Cage for a while now, a movie that will star Vin Diesel as the adrenaline sports-mad secret agent Xander that looks Vin Diesel playing Vin Diesel as himself. Um… Well we now know, thanks to HollywoodReporter, that Kung Fu extraordinaire Jet Li will be joining the cast as a threat to Xander, though apparently not the actual big bad. I think that could work nicely. Watching Diesel and Statham fight in FF 7 was a load of fun so having Diesel, who is approximately 772 1/2 times the size of Li (similar to the size difference between myself and Kervyn), go toe to toe with Li should be awesome. I also expect the fight would end in a draw, unlike a fight between myself and Kervyn where the ginger would, without a doubt, break all land-speed records for running in the opposite direction.

Revolution studio’s CEO Vince Totino said:

xXx 3: The Return of Xander Cage is one of the jewels in Revolution Studio’s library, and we’re giving the devoted fans more of what they want by expanding the franchise and introducing new and extreme action characters like Jet Li’s.

Jewel eh? Then why has it been 11 years since the last movie? I would venture it’s more to do with Diesel and the fact that he has a Midas touch when it comes to raking the cash in that has more to do with it. Revolution Studio’s COO Scott Hemming added:

We are extremely excited to have Jet Li join the cast of xXx 3: The Return of Xander Cage as Raif, who is pitted against Vin Diesel’s Xander Cage, and watch these two in action as they raise the bar with some of the most incredible stunts on film.

That I can believe. Like the awesome muffins I make the recipe is very simple. Take one Vin Diesel, add a sprightly but aged Asian antagonist, add action, shake for one and a half hours in 3D, top with cheesy one-liners and Boom! $$$

Last Updated: January 20, 2016