Remember when xtreme sports were all the rage so much so that the “xXx” series was born, creating a platform for an extreme athlete to turn government operative and use his fearless talents to fight bad guys? Well, Xander Cage, Vin Diesel’s action character from the series, is back. Of course, we’ll remember that Diesel skipped the sequel, “xXx: State Of The Union,” because he was busy with another movie at the time. Instead rapper/actor Ice Cube took the lead and the movie performed so poorly the studio thought was the franchise was over. Turns out a few years of nostalgia and Diesel wanting to resurrect the series was enough to bring it back.
The new film centers on the return if Xander Cage (natch) and his self-imposed exile. Thought to be long dead, he recruits an all-new group of thrill-seekers that find themselves caught up in a deadly conspiracy connected to the highest levels of world governments.
Directed by D. J. Caruso, (“I Am Number Four”) and co-starring Deepika Padukone, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Nina Dobrev, Rory McCann and Samuel L. Jackson, Paramount Pictures will release “xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage” on January 20, 2017. Watch the first trailer below.