While there’s no doubt that Ice Cube’s installment in the XXX franchise was artistically successful, the fans have long clamored for a return to the mediocrity of the original, hoping that Rob Cohen and Vin Diesel would return to the film that made them a beach house.
Hope no longer. Variety reports that the two are in talks (ie really hoping to get hired) for a third XXX which would resurrect the modestly enjoyed character of Xander Cage. Super fans of XXX will remember that the Director’s Cut DVD of that film includes a short film where Xander is killed in a building explosion. They will then also remember stroking it to Diesel’s bald pate for hours at a time.
Anyway, Xander was killed, so Cohen and Diesel must put their heads together to come up with a way to bring him back, and I suspect they won’t be stopped by things like logic or narrative coherence.
I’m not shocked that Diesel is coming back – did you see the box office for Babylon AD? – but Cohen surprises me. When I interviewed him on the sound mixing stage for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor he seemed straight up pissed off at producer Neil Moritz, who had made sequels to XXX and The Fast and the Furious without the director. Guess they kissed and made up.