xXx 3 to Shoot in December?

Rumors of a third xXx movie have abounded for as long as I've had this blog. Vin Diesel starred in the vapid 2002 original, only to have his character, extreme sports athlete turned spy Xander Cage (if you think the early 2000s are still too recent to be dated, meditate for a moment on the phrase "extreme sports athlete turned spy!") unceremoniously killed off in a DVD special feature. (Which has to be just about the most insulting way ever to off a character!) He was replaced in the even more vapid 2005 sequel, xXx: State of the Union, by Ice Cube. Since at least 2008, all the rumors of a third movie have focused on Diesel returning to the franchise, despite his character's ignominious death. And since 2013, Diesel himself has been banging the drum loudest for that to happen. And yesterday he banged pretty loudly, stating in an Instagram post (reported by Collider, via Empire) that "While I was filming XXX, guys on set called me Air Diesel... The time to return has come. Filming starts December in the Philippines." Will the threequel actually come to pass this time? While Rob Cohen, who helmed the original, had at one point flirted with returning, no director has been formally announced. But there's still time for such an announcement between now and December.

While it's true that the series has yet to produce a movie that's actually any good, I'm still kind of excited for a new entry. After all, Diesel's other big franchise, The Fast and the Furious, only really came to life with the fifth movie, suddenly becoming so much more than what it had been! If Diesel could entice the director who enlivened that series, Justin Lin, to similarly vivify xXx, I would honestly expect greatness. (But Lin, who was attached to a second Jeremy Renner Bourne movie which now seems to be history, is currently doing the next Star Trek, and consequently won't be free in December.) Still, I'm at least mildly intrigued at the prospect of more Xander Cage.

In a mostly unrelated, non-Diesel xXx coincidence, I have to admit that the ever so brief footage of Ice Cube in xXx: State of the Union included in the spectacular Straight Outta Compton (a movie everyone should see, regardless of their interest in or familiarity with NWA) actually made me kind of want to watch Lee Tamahori's terrible sequel again. I know it will still be terrible, but maybe the decade since has made it also kind of fun. Maybe?