Vin Diesel is a man of many franchises, some of which he himself has spearheaded.
Alongside the hugely popular Fast & Furious, those franchises include the Pitch Black and XxX film series, the latter of which began his action star career. The initial 2002 film saw Xander Cage (Diesel) as an extreme sports enthusiast and rebellious stuntman working as a superspy for the National Security Agency, which tasked him to infiltrate a terrorist organization. The third film in the trilogy came in 2017’s xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, which saw Diesel return to the enter stage following the unsuccessful 2005 sequel starring Ice Cube. The Return of Xander Cage made over $346 million worldwide off a $85 million budget.
Although a fourth film was announced by Diesel and director D.J. Caruso with The H Collective and Diesel’s own One Race Films production company, there’s currently a lawsuit preventing the movie from going forward. Weying Galaxy Entertainment claims H Collective and Diesel breached a contract on the production rights of xXx 4, and the suit still remains active.
However, earlier this year, Diesel made a post on Instagram with Deepika Padukone, who made her Hollywood debut in Return of Xander Cage. “Spirit lead me… @deepikapadukone was one of my favorite people to work with,” the caption of the post begins. “She brought me to India and I loved it… looking forward to my return.” In the film, she served as Cage’s “Bond woman,” a moniker that still follows her in her latest advert.
Although the post isn’t near confirmation that production has resumed, it indicates that the fourth film in the franchise is fresh in Diesel’s mind.
To refresh, the fourth film originally included Diesel and the entire cast alongside Ice Cube, who appeared as Darius Stone in a cameo toward the end of Return of Xander Cage. However, the executive behind the greenlight, Brad Grey, died in 2017. The following year, Jay Chou (The Green Hornet) joined the cast alongside Chinese actress Zoe Zhang.
In a 2017 interview with Cinemablend, Caruso explained, “Sam [Jackson] talks about how we need someone to watch the watchers… So that’s kind of the idea with the next one. And then, if we can expand on that, what would the world leaders do if they know that these were the people watching the watchers?”
Alongside Diesel, Padukone, Jackson, and Cube, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage stars Donnie Yen, Toni Collette, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Nina Dobrev, Hermoine Corfeild, Tony Gonzalez, and Ariadna Gutierrez.
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, Streaming Now, Paramount+
