This Friday’s xXx: Return of Xander Cage marks the explosive big-screen return of extreme sports athlete-turned-government operative Xander Cage, played by Vin Diesel. Introduced in 2002’s xXx and conspicuously absent from 2005’s xXx: State of the Union (in which Ice Cube took over the series as XXX Agent Darius Stone), Xander is back in action in Return, alongside the following new and returning characters.
Adele Wolff (Ruby Rose)
Australian actress Ruby Rose (“Orange is the New Black”) makes the leap from TV prisoner to take-no-prisoners movie badass in xXx: Return of Xander Cage. To prepare for her role as Adele, a trusted ally of Cage (Diesel) and deadly sniper, Rose trained in Los Angeles at a rifle range used by the military, LAPD and secret service. She told the Sydney Morning Herald, "First shot, bang, I hit the playing card… and [the trainer] was like 'OK, if we ever need you for anything, you would be really good at this.'"
Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson)
The only major character to appear in all three xXx movies, Augustus Gibbons is the NSA agent who recruited unlikely heroes Xander Cage (Diesel) in xXx and Darius Stone (Ice Cube) in xXx: State of the Union. In Return of Xander Cage, Gibbons is back as Cage’s long-time mentor and is once again played by Hollywood franchise MVP Samuel L. Jackson (Marvel’s Avengers series; Star Wars: Episodes I-III).
Here’s footage of Jackson goofing around with Diesel and announcing his return to the series last April (and since it’s Samuel Jackson, a language advisory is in effect):
Becky Clearidge (Nina Dobrev)
Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev joins the xXx team as Agent Becky Clearidge, a geeky tech whiz who prefers the office to the field because, as she says in the clip below, “Guns scare me. People with guns really scare me. And, if I’m scared, I can’t do my job. And, if I can’t do my job, then people die. And, if people die, then who am I tech-supporting?”
Darius Stone (Ice Cube)
When Vin Diesel bowed out of appearing in the first xXx sequel (xXx: State of the Union), Ice Cube took over leading man duties as XXX Agent Darius Stone. But with Diesel back in Return of Xander Cage, no one suspected Cube would be too until this recently released trailer, in which his xXx character Darius is seen blowing up a truck full of villains and quipping, “X takes care of its own.” The combination of Cage and Stone should make this a must-see for xXx fans.
Hawk (Michael Bisping)
British UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping steps into the acting ring with his role as villainous henchman Hawk. According to a story on MMA News, Diesel wanted Bisping for the role because he “wanted someone that had that English accent.” He added, “I also wanted someone that could do fight sequences. A lot of the UFC guys do great fight sequences in movies. You saw when I put Gina Carano in [Fast and Furious 6], and Ronda Rousey in [Furious 7]. I had great experiences when putting UFC fighters in the movie, so I wanted someone that had that English accent, they talk like this, and I got Michael Bisping to come and do that.”
Jane Marke (Toni Collette)
Academy Award nominee Toni Collette (Best Supporting Actress, The Sixth Sense, 1999) brings her considerable acting chops to xXx: Return of Xander Cage as Jane Marke, a government operative who tracks down Cage and recruits him for a new mission: obliterate a super-weapon called the Pandora’s Box and take down the mastermind behind it. The role gives Collette the rare chance to slick back her hair, rock some leather duds and wield a gun: in other words, be a badass chick.
See footage of Jane recruiting Cage in the movie’s official trailer:
Nicks (Kris Wu)
Chinese-Canadian actor (The Mermaid, Mr. Six) and pop star (South Korean/Chinese boy band EXO) Kris Wu brings the party to xXx: Return of Xander Cage as Nicks, a record-spinning DJ and key member of Cage’s spy team who loves to add a choice music cut to an action-packed moment. Kris told Chinese news outlet “Talking to Hollywood with Betty Zhou” that Nicks’ “seemingly entertaining but non-threatening skills turn out to help out his team a lot.”
Serena Unger (Deepika Padukone)
Bollywood star Deepika Padukone (Tamasha, Bajirao Mastani) makes her Hollywood debut in xXx: Return of Xander Cage as Serena Unger, a mysterious and sexy operative from India and potential love interest for Cage. In a behind-the-scenes featurette for the movie, Padukone attributed Cage’s attraction to Serena to “the fact that he sees a lot of him in her." Check out their flirtatious dynamic in the following clip:
Talon (Tony Jaa)
Thai action star Tony Jaa (Furious 7, Ong-Bak series) gets in on some xXx action as the villainous Talon, whom Jaa described in the movie’s official behind-the-scenes interview as a “tiger from Thailand.” The movie’s supervising stunt coordinator, Bobby Brown, added that the experienced action star “brought all kinds of great ideas and choreography” to the movie.
Check out Talon action in the following clip:
Tennyson Torch (Rory McCann)
Best known for his work as Sandor “The Hound" Clegane on HBO’s Game of Thrones, Rory McCann brings a Scottish brogue and unique rogue energy to the part of Tennyson Torch, designated driver of Cage’s XXX gang. McCann describes his character as an “ex-stuntman who’s been hit in the head a bit too much. He’s slightly crazy and a bit of a conspiracy theorist… but he’s good in a crisis; he’s good under fire; and he’s good at lifting big, heavy things, just like me in real life.”
Xiang (Donnie Yen)
Hong Kong action superstar Donnie Yen (Ip Man series) recently earned international fandom with his heroic turn in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But in the new xXx, Yen plays the decidedly un-heroic bad guy Xiang, who’s in a race against Diesel’s Cage to locate Pandora’s Box, a device that controls every military satellite in the world. Check out Xiang and Cage below in a death-defying motorcycle chase across land and sea:
Finally, here’s a clip of Diesel talking about some of the movie’s new characters and its uniquely international cast:
Check it out in theaters everywhere January 20.
