The preposterous sequel that relaunched a dead brand before getting stuck in legal quicksand detonates on Netflix’s Top 10 in 54 countries

If Vin Diesel has the chance to turn something into a franchise, you can be damned sure he’s going to take it, even if it took him a lot longer than usual to get around to xXx: Return of Xander Cage.

2002’s opening installment was hyped as being akin to James Bond for the nu-metal generation, and while that’s exactly what it delivered, it’s also aged about as well as a blockbuster cursed with that moniker can expect. On the plus side, it was a damn sight better than the wretched sequel.

Ice Cube stepped in for State of the Union, which bombed so hard it placed the entire saga on life support until the Fast & Furious figurehead agreed to return 15 years on from his debut as the tattooed title hero who makes it his life’s mission to make extreme sports as ridiculous as possible.

Thanks to a remarkably robust box office run that netted almost $350 million against an $85 million budget, Diesel unsurprisingly confirmed there were plans a foot for a fourth installment. However, xXx ran into legal trouble that it hasn’t yet been able to extricate itself from, with the sticky world of financial and contractual small print holding things up. New cast members were announced in late 2018, but after that the trail went cold.

Regardless, stupid actioners are irresistible to streaming subscribers, and with FlixPatrol revealing Return of Xander Cage to be a Top 10 hit on Netflix in no less than 54 countries around the world, the sentiment has been proven true yet again.