Recently, Vin Diesel posted to his Facebook page the above trailer announcement for xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage, the existence of which proves that nostalgia doesn’t actually need a positive association to drive business. While the first one was gloriously dumb, it was also a strangely numbing experience where even a scene where Diesel outruns an avalanche on a snowboard gets lost in a lineup of awkward attempts to marry the Bond franchise with extreme sports. The second film, xXx: State Of The Union, managed to be a bit more fun—mostly because Ice Cube is a more watchable hero—but few were clamoring for a third entry.
Yet here we are, two days away from the premiere of the trailer for xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage at the San Diego Comic-Con, as if the resurgence of this franchise is somehow a big deal. “Hey, remember that thing that was sort of okay 15 years ago? It’s coming back to be sort of okay again!” you might say while showing your friends this footage and drinking a Mountain Dew.
Below, you can read the synopsis for the movie, provided by Entertainment Weekly:
Revolution Studios, Roth Kirschenbaum Films, and Diesel’s One Race Films are producing the third installment, which finds Xander coming out of a self-imposed exile to face off against a deadly alpha warrior named Xiang, according to a press release. Racing against Xiang and his team to recover a seemingly unstoppable weapon known as Pandora’s Box, Xander recruits an all-new group of extreme cohorts and finds himself enmeshed in a vast conspiracy that suggests corruption in the world’s most powerful governments.
In addition to Diesel, The Return Of Xander Cage will also star Samuel L. Jackson, Toni Collette, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, and Miss Universe runner-up Ariadna Gutiérrez, as something Cage will do for his country. The film premieres January 20, 2017.