Paramount Pictures has released the second trailer for xXx: Return of Xander Cage starring Vin Diesel as the title character. Diesel makes a return to the role after taking a brief (if you could call it that) hiatus. It is the second sequel of the franchise, with the first, directed by Rob Cohen, being released in 2002. It was then followed up by its mediocre sequel, xXx: State of the Union, in 2005, where Lee Tamahori took Cohen’s place as director and Ice Cube took on the title role from an absent Diesel.

So after nearly a decade of “development,” Diesel is back as Xander Cage, and he is facing a threat unlike any other he has faced before when four deadly action junkies like himself come across a very dangerous weapon. So it is up to Cage and his new recruits to stop them. Check out the trailer below.

Personally, I have never gravitated to the xXx franchise, but I guess I can see its appeal if you want to see what it would be like to put a B-rated action movie and the X-Games into a blender. Some of the stunts look flat out silly, and that could be the key to making this film a hit. Just ignore the laws of physics and defy gravity, and add a few action stars like Diesel and Donnie Yen, and you get a mildly interesting action film. We’ll just have to see if it all lives up to the hype or even possibly exceeds our low expectations.

The film also stars Ruby Rose, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette, Tony Jaa, Deepika Padukone, and Rory McCann, with Samuel L. Jackson returning to reprise his role as Agent Augustus Gibbons, the man who recruited Xander Cage to become an X-Games spy.

Here’s an official plot synopsis:

The third explosive chapter of the blockbuster franchise that redefined the spy thriller finds extreme athlete turned government operative Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) coming out of self-imposed exile and on a collision course with deadly alpha warrior Xiang and his team in a race to recover a sinister and seemingly unstoppable weapon known as Pandora’s Box. Recruiting an all-new group of thrill-seeking cohorts, Xander finds himself enmeshed in a deadly conspiracy that points to collusion at the highest levels of world governments. Packed with the series’ signature deadpan wit and bad-ass attitude, “xXx: THE RETURN OF XANDER CAGE” will raise the bar on extreme action with some of the most mind-blowing stunts to ever be caught on film.

Directed by D. J. Caruso, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage opens in theaters on January 20th, 2017.

Trailer

[Source: Paramount Pictures]