Before Vin Diesel starting defying the laws of physics in a car, he was busy… well, defying the laws of physics in a car. And also on a motorcycle. And with a snowboard. And practically any other crazy mode of transport as extreme sports star turned secret agent Xander Cage in 2002’s admittedly rather middling xXx. Despite lukewarm reviews, Diesel has mentioned in the past that he would like to reprise the role and it appears that he’s now finally getting his wish.
Taking to his Instagram page yesterday, action hero posted the following message revealing that not only is another xXx sequel forthcoming, but that it’s actually happening a lot sooner that you may think.
Wow. December? That’s pretty close. Especially since Fast & Furious 8 is expected to go into production early 2016 to make its 2017 release date. There’s also the fact that at the moment there has been zero news about a director or a script.
Diesel and original director Rob Cohen have previously talked about teaming up again for another xXx flick titled xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, so maybe the director gets back on board for this third outing. With Diesel riding the success of the Fast & Furious movies that may just be a great partnership for the hack Cohen, as he sure as hell needs another hit in his career after the likes of Alex Cross, The Boy Next Door and Stealth (the latter of which was one of the worst box office losses in cinematic history). That is of course if the world actually wants to see another xXx flick, which is a whole other conversation.
This would be the third xXx film, as 2005 already saw the release of a sequel titled xXx: State of the Union which focused on a new secret agent played by Ice Cube. Diesel and Cohen (who also directed the first Fast and Furious movie) refused to be involved with this second film at all, which actually turned out to be a wise move as it got justifiably savaged by critics and audiences alike. The first film may not exactly have been critically praised but it at least pulled in a very profitable $277 million off a $70 million budget. xXx: State of the Union on the other hand ended up being a box office bomb, only managing to recoup $71 million of its $113 million production budget. Ouch.
And although Diesel and Cohen’s refusal of xXx: State of the Union ended up being good career choices for them, the studio apparently wasn’t as enamoured with their rebuttal and seemingly in retaliation had the character of Xander Cage killed off in the goriest way possible in a short film released on just before the debut of xXx: State of the Union. They didn’t even use Diesel himself, opting instead for his stunt double who doesn’t have any dialogue at all.
Clearly though, Diesel disagrees on the fate of Xander Cage.
Last Updated: August 25, 2015
Unavengedavo
August 25, 2015 at 09:47
Suddenly this tweet makes sense O_o
https://twitter.com/TheKervynator/status/635750673758429184
Kervyn Cloete
August 25, 2015 at 10:12
Indeed.
RinceThis
August 25, 2015 at 10:33
lol