Donnie Yen Replaces Jet Li In Vin Diesel’s XXX 3

We’ve got some good news and some bad news for action fans.

The bad news is that Jet Li has dropped out of Vin Diesel’s in-production ‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ - but the good news is that Donnie Yen (best known for the ‘Ip Man’ series) has taken his pace.

Diesel announced Yen’s casting in the sequel to the 2002 extreme sports secret agent adventure by sharing the set photo below - showing Diesel and Yen with director DJ Caruso - on Facebook.

Meanwhile, it has been reported by Twitch - who were the first to announced the casting of Jet Li, Tony Jaa and Deepika Padukone (pictured above with Diesel) in the sequel - that Yen is taking over Li’s role (known only as Xiang) after the Chinese star was forced to exit for unknown reasons.

A synopsis released online for ‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ says the sequel will see Diesel’s Cage - reported to have died in second film ‘XXX: State of the Union’ (AKA ‘XXX 2: The Next Level’) - “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.”

As well as Yen, Jaa and Padukone, ‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ will co-star Nina Dobrev, Connor McGregor, Toni Collette and original ‘XXX’ and ‘XXX 2′ star Samuel L Jackson - and Twitch also mention rumours that Ice Cube, lead of ‘XXX 2,’ may also appear.

‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ is due in 2017 - before which, Donnie Yen will be seen in ‘Star Wars: Rogue One.’

Picture Credit: Facebook/Vin Diesel

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