Action superstar Vin Diesel seems to be a man of franchises. He’s been one of the main stars of the Fast and Furious saga, being part in all the movies, including the announced upcoming 9th and 10th installments, except the second movie, 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). And now he’s also stable in the Marvel series of movies Guardians of the Galaxy and their occasional appearances in the Avengers spin-offs playing Groot. It’s true that in between all those sagas and franchises he has starred in other science fiction and action titles like Boiler Room (2000), Knockaround Guys (2001), A Man Apart (2003), Babylon A.D. (2008) or The Last Witch Hunter (2015), but in the global of his career those are almost minor anecdotes.
Recently it has been confirmed that he is also going to take part in the 4th installments of two of his most notorious franchises, xXx and Riddick.
Action science fiction Pitch Black (2000) might be the title that raised Vin Diesel into the league of action stars. His role of the merciless criminal Richard B. Riddick stuck in an unknown planet became an instant classic, it was one of those little movies that emerged out of nowhere and won the heart of the genre aficionados. Like all the movies in the saga, it was directed by David Twohy, a filmmaker who has dedicated all his career to the world of horror and science fiction, and whose previous movie The Arrival (1996) also achieved a big loyal fanbase.
Vin Diesel totally took the character to his terrain, building a strong persona that turned the interstellar outlaw into some sort of indestructible semi-god, a myth. The dense The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), with more confusing plot than action, perhaps was not what the fans expected, and remained as a not so worth sequel of the original fantastic film. But luckily the recent Riddick (2013) brought back the character, more powerful and vengeful than ever. Now Furia, the fourth and speculated to be the final Riddick movie, is surely one of the titles for the genre fans to be waiting.
On the other side, xXx (2002) was an action product designed for an already installed in the stardom Vin Diesel. The movie was directed by Rob Cohen, who already directed Diesel the previous year in the blockbuster The Fast and the Furious (2001). In it, the chunky actor was Xander Cage, an extreme sports athlete superstar, breaking constantly the law but not in the name of crime but to punishing the rich and always perform the most outstanding stunt. That is until Samuel L. Jackson appears in scene and lures him into infiltrating a group of Russian anarchy terrorists. Like some sort of tattooed irreverent James Bond, with cool gadgets, impossible action scenes and against very very bad guys who want to exterminate entire cities. The movie was a big hit and had a very lame sequel, xXx: State of the Union (2005), of which Diesel past and Ice Cube took control of the outsider agent Triple X.
Last year Vin Diesel wore the Triple X tattoos again in xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017), way inferior to the original film, but at least more entertaining than the first sequel. D.J. Caruso directed it and despite its discrete opening in the box office and the disfavorable critics, it managed to accumulate worldwide a grossing of 4 times its budget. In the announced fourth installment, with the working title of a simple xXx 4, D.J. Caruso directs again and Vin Diesel reprises as Xander Cage. What menace will face the alternative bandit spy this time? Will Samuel L. Jackson be again his boss and mentor Augustus Gibbons? That, my friends, is not disclosed yet. But surely is what us the fans want. Samuel L. Jackson should be in every movie ever, and that’s it.
