It’s already been a long long wait! More than a four-year haul since the world last witnessed Vin Diesel come back to the world of extreme sports, adrenaline and global espionage with xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Now the break wasn’t anywhere as long as the 2002 film and the 2017 one, but still, fans can’t keep calm and continue to wonder what’s happening with xXx 4. Read on and see everything we know about xXx 4.
xXx 4 Was Already In The Works Even Before The Return of Xander Cage Release
Back in January 2017, just days before the release of xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Vin Diesel gave it all away in a Variety interview. He said that Brad Grey, who at the time was CEO of Paramount Pictures, had called him asking if everybody would be okay with coming back for xXx 4. Quite a bold move though, as they didn’t have a clue as to how the third installment would perform. Ultimately, it did perform very well, but only internationally.
Details Of The Storyline
Story details concerning xXx 4 are very less, although returning director D.J. Caruso did say near the release of The Return of Xander Cage that he wanted the next entry to see Cage and Augustus Gibbons presumably targeting corrupt governmental authorities. This makes for an interesting new angle into the story of Xander Cage, possibly making the narrative and plot a little more relevant and simple. Return of Xander Cage’s ending definitely sets up this idea for the possible xXx 4 as the movie concludes with Xander rejoining the program and ready for a new mission that involves watching the watchers.
Will The Fourth Installment Come To Fruition?
The first xXx installment was released in August of 2002. While Vin Diesel was praised for his performance in the role of Xander Cage, the film itself didn’t do exceptionally well among critics, drawing only mixed reviews. But the box office numbers were still pretty decent. It raked in $44.5 million in its opening weekend and grossed $277 million worldwide. The xXx sequel only made $12.7 million at the box office during its opening weekend. xXx: State of the Union managed to do $71 million worldwide, a far cry from its predecessor. The third film was made over a decade later than the second and managed to make $20.1 million on its opening weekend domestically, grossing $346 million worldwide, offering exactly why a fourth Xander Cage movie was greenlit initially.
The Director’s Word
xXx 3 director D.J. Caruso stated the fourth installment would follow Xander Cage’s team taking on corrupt governments. To the surprise of everyone, State of the Union’s Darius Stone (Ice Cube) came back for a quick cameo near the end of xXx: Return of Xander Cage to provide assistance to the xXx crew, telling them they would be coming for the team of fugitives. Caruso quoted “I think there’s a bigger ‘they’re’ at play that we talked about. We also talked about, particularly with the political climate as it is now, not that we’re such a huge political movie, but 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?”
Details Of The Cast
In November 2018, it was announced that Jay Chou, the Taiwanese singer and actor who made his Hollywood film debut and became one of the best things about The Green Hornet, had joined the cast of xXx 4. Similarly, Chinese actress Zoe Zhang was also revealed to be joining the cast for the fourth installment in the franchise, but no information on their specific roles was provided at the time. However as the shoot dates came nearer, the movie’s pre-production issues didn’t seem to be ending.
Legal Troubles And The Lawsuit
In October 2020 Weying Galaxy, the Chinese ticketing vendor that entered a joint venture with The H Collective to secure the rights for the franchise a few years earlier, filed a lawsuit against the production company due to a number of alleged irregularities. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Basically, Weying Galaxy contributed $6 million into a joint venture that would have given the shared company 100% of the derivative rights to the franchise, essentially allowing the fourth part and any future installments to be under its control. Only after Weying made the contribution did it discover that The H Collective failed to reach its side of the bargain and that Vin Diesel still had control of 50% of those rights. The legal issues still continue making it very hard to determine whether the fourth installment or any future films will happen. Fans will have to wait and watch.
So this is Everything we know about xXx 4. Would you like to see the installment come to life? Let us know in the comments.
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