Vin Diesel is set to return to one of his first roles: that of extreme sports bad boy turned super spy for the U.S. government, Xander Cage.
Diesel, now 48, recently confirmed on his Instagram account that he would be returning to the role that started it all for the actor. In the post, a picture from a GQ spread that the actor posed for stated that when he was on the set of the original "xXx" movie, they called him Air Diesel, and that he misses that. He will soon return to the role as filming starts in the Philippines in December.
The original "xXx" movie debuted in 2002 under the Sony Pictures Banner. The film did remarkably well, earning over USD 270 million worldwide, according to Variety. Diesel had signed on to star in the sequel "xXx: State of the Union", but pulled out of the project, allowing Ice Cube to take on the role of a new character to be in the xXx program.
The second film starring Ice Cube did not have the same look or feel as the first as only Samuel L. Jackson returned to the sequel. The sequel earned considerably less money than the first and was critically panned by moviegoers and film critics alike. After the second movie, the film franchise was considered dead by many.
In the original movie, Diesel's character, Xander Cage, was blackmailed into serving the United States government by Samuel L. Jackson's character, Agent Augustus Gibbons. Gibbons was able to blackmail Cage after a stunt involving a senator's car that was driven off a cliff. Cage was then given the task to take down a criminal organization called Anarchy 99.
The movie's tentative title is "xXx: Return of Xander Cage" as reported by Time. However, currently, there has been no news on who else will be starring in the film alongside Diesel or any news on the plot. The original 2002 film was directed by Rob Cohen, and as yet, there has been no word on whether the director will return to the film. Samuel L. Jackson, who appeared in both films, has not yet confirmed any involvement as well.
According to Diesel, the film starts shooting in December in the Philippines but there is still no news on a tentative release date. What do you think of Vin Diesel returning as Xander Cage? Do you think the "xXx" franchise is worth reviving? Let us know in the comments below.