Ever the one to maintain an open dialogue with his legions of fans via social media, Vin Diesel has shared another image from the set of action threequel xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage, this time offering up our first look at Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone.
Having officially eased into production earlier this week, the latest still arrives on the heels of a pair of set photos – once again, hailing from Diesel – that teased some early stuntwork, along with Vin Diesel collaborating with director D.J. Caruso.
What remains unclear at this stage is how exactly Padukone filters into the story. It’s no secret that the xXx franchise has been guilty of underserving its female leads in the past, though we’re holding out hope that the Bollywood actress gets her fair share of the limelight, perhaps in a similar vein to Asia Argento’s role in the 2002 original.
In terms of Diesel’s extreme sports enthusiast, last we heard of Xander Cage he was seemingly killed off screen while holidaying in Bora Bora, thereby allowing Ice Cube to take the cult action franchise in a new and wholly disappointing direction. But rest assured, Vin Diesel is fully on board to rejuvenate the dormant franchise, though whether it holds the same cache with fans after more than a decade is another question entirely.
Vin Diesel and Deepika Padukone will be joined by Toni Collette, Samuel L. Jackson, Furious 7 cohort Tony Jaa and Irish UFC champ Conor McGregor laid the groundwork, before Nina Dobrev, Ruby Rose, Jet Li, and Andrey Ivchenko when xXx: The Return of Xander Cage descends into theaters at some point in 2017. Though given Diesel’s tendency to share stories from the production, don’t expect today’s image to be the last tidbit emerging from the set via the actor’s ever-active Facebook feed.
