Chinese superstar Kris Wu has joined the cast of Vin Diesel‘s action movie “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage,” which will serve as his first U.S. project, it was announced Tuesday by Paramount.
Paramount is teaming on the high-octane sequel with Revolution Studios, Roth Kirschenbaum Films and Diesel’s One Race Films.
After sitting out 2005’s “xXx: State of the Union,” Diesel returns to the franchise to reprise his role as Xander Cage, and this time he’ll be joined by Samuel L. Jackson, Toni Collette, Nina Dobrev, Ruby Rose, Hermione Corfield, Bollywood star Deepika Padukone and martial-arts sensations Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa and Conor McGregor.
D.J. Caruso is directing from a script by Chad St. John and F. Scott Frazier. Joe Roth will produce with Diesel, among others, while Revolution executives Vince Totino and Scott Hemming will serve as executive producers.
Wu was born in China and raised in Vancouver, so he speaks perfect English and is fluent in three other languages. The rising international star is no stranger to the spotlight, having been part of the South Korean-Chinese supergroup EXO.
Once Wu wraps “xXx,” he’ll segue into production on Luc Besson‘s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” which also stars Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke and Rihanna.
Not only did Wu recently shoot a sequel to his record-breaking Chinese movie “Journey to the West”; this past weekend he became the first Asian celebrity to play in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, which was coached by Kevin Hart and Toronto Raptors fan Drake.
Wu was recently named the King of Weibo in China with 13 million fans, but that’s not the only social-media platform he has conquered; he also boasts 3.4 million Instagram followers. Represented by CAA, he currently has two hit movies in Chinese theaters including Stephen Chow’s “Mermaid,” which is expected to be the highest-grossing film in Chinese history.