Jet Li is part of the cast of "xXx 3: The Return of Xander Cage." (Photo : REUTERS)
Chinese kung fu star Jet Li and Thai martial artist and actor Tony Jaa are set to join Vin Diesel for "xXx 3: The Return of Xander Cage," reported CRIEnglish.
The news was announced on a Jan. 1 article published on comingsoon.net. However, the characters the two Asian action stars will play have yet to be revealed.
The sequel is also set to star Indian actress Deepika Padukone as part of the leading cast. She will be playing an ally on the side of the good guys.
Film critics believe that the new cast members are an effort to attract a bigger international audience for the film. They also believe that getting Vin Diesel back was also done to take advantage of his popularity resulting from the "Fast and Furious" franchise.
Earlier this week, Cinema Blend revealed that the sequel will include Samuel L. Jackson, who will reprise his role as the boss of the National Security Agency.
Vin Diesel has expressed how pleased he is to return to the franchise as Xander Cage, an extreme athlete and stuntman recruited by the NSA to become a spy, after being absent from the 2005 sequel, "State of the Union."
The original "xXx" was released in 2002. The film was a box-office success, earning more than $277 million with a budget of $70 million.
The sequel is already in production, although a release date has yet to be decided.
Meanwhile, fans of the franchise are speculating how Cage will be written back into the script.
In the second film, it was mentioned that Cage had died prior to the events of the film. The DVD release even featured a short film that showed Cage killed by a minor villain.
