Casting is beginning to heat up on the set of Vin Diesel’s long-awaited action sequel xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, with Variety reporting that Russian actor Andrey Ivchenko will give Diesel’s cocksure agent a run for his money as the film’s lead villain.
Ivchenko, best known for his recurring role in TNT’s Falling Skies, now joins a cast that already boasts Jet Li, Nina Dobrev, Ruby Rose of Orange is the New Black fame, Bollywood starlet Deepika Padukone and Irish UFC champ Conor McGregor. According to Variety, Ivchenko is just one of the big bads Diesel is set to lock horns with, given that earlier reports revealed Li also joined the threequel as a potential adversary.
In the works over at Revolution Studios, for the longest time it appeared as though the character of Xander Cage had been unceremoniously killed off for good – in Bora Bora, no less – thereby leading to the scenario of Ice Cube supplanting Vin Diesel for middling follow-up, State of the Union. But more than a decade later, pent-up fan demand has resulted in, well, The Return of Xander Cage. Plot details may be under wraps for now, though it’s understood that production will get underway later this month ahead of a planned release in 2017.
Should all the pieces fall into place – and they’re certainly well on their way – 2017 will mark a massive year for fans of Vin Diesel-fronted action franchises. Next April, we’ll see him reprise the career-defining role Dominic Toretto in F. Gary Gray’s Fast 8, along with the potential arrival of xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and new extensions of the Riddick universe across film and television.
