In 2002, Vin Diesel followed his Fast and Furious debut with xXx, an unabashed B movie actioner that was essentially a Bond film on steroids. Three years later, Ice Cube took up the mantle for the middling sequel, State of the Union, as Diesel was busy filming The Pacifier. Now, almost a decade later, the fan-favorite actor is primed to return as Xander Cage later this year, when filming will begin on a bona fide follow-up to the bombastic romp.
Taking to Instagram, Diesel announced plans to move forward with the new chapter, with production set to commence in the Philippines before the year’s end. Here’s the official post:
Reviving the xXx franchise from the brink following State of the Union‘s lowly box office performance will be no mean feat, though the fact that Diesel is returning to topline the sequel at least lends the project an inkling of promise.
For the uninitiated, xXx had Diesel play the role of an extreme sports enthusiast recruited for a top-secret mission in the Czech Republic. The reason? A terrorist group known as Anarchy 99 threatened to unleash Silent Night, a deadly chemical weapon capable of global, well, anarchy. Uniting with Asia Argento’s Yelena, Xander foils the plan at the eleventh hour, before retreating to an island paradise and effectively falling off the radar. Where exactly Diesel’s agent will go from here remains to be seen.
A sequel to xXx will finally begin filming in December – you know, just as soon as Xander returns from his vacation in Bora Bora.