The Original Version Of xXx 2 Was A Buddy Movie Between Vin Diesel & Ice Cube
The original, unmade version of xXx: State Of The Union was more of a buddy comedy between Vin Diesel's Xander Cage and Ice Cube's Darius Stone. The goal with 2002's xXx was for Sony to build itself a James Bond-style spy series for the 21st century. Instead of a suave, martini-sipping British spy, it focused on Vin Diesel's Cage, an extreme sports addict with a healthy disregard for authority. The movie was a success, but Diesel got cold feet about the directionxXx: State Of The Union was taking and left the movie.
The xXx series nearly took a more anthology approach from that point, with the plan being that each film would feature a new xXx agent in the lead. Ice Cube was thus cast as Darius Stone, a former Navy SEAL who is reluctantly recruited by Samuel L. Jackson's Gibbons to stop an attempted Washington coup. In contrast to the first film, xXx: State Of The Union was a box-office dud upon arrival and was lambasted for lazy writing, bad CGI and — the biggest crime of all — just not being much fun.
Related: How xXx 3 Mocked Jason Bourne During The Opening Scene
The paranoid conspiracy thriller angle helped set xXx: State Of The Union apart from the first xXx, but it quickly became clear a third entry wasn't happening. While xXx 2 was being developed, there were two screenplays being worked on; one saw Xander Cage fighting modern-day pirates, while the other found him mixed up in the coup of the final movie. In the documentary «From Convict to Hero: The Making of 'XXX: State of the Union,» screenwriter Simon Kinberg revealed his original directive when penning the script was to make more of a thriller than an action film, and his version of xXx 2 saw Vin Diesel's Cage working with Cube's Darius Stone.
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