The two most shocking tidbits about this piece of news are:

1. This line from the Variety article: "The third incarnation has a title, XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, but no script." How can a movie have a title before it has a script? I get that Xander Cage is Vin Diesel's character and they want to promote that, but I'm guessing he'll return in the opening moments of the movie and that the movie might not end up being so much about his return, but about stuff that happens after his return. I'm going to hope for the movie's sake that someone reconsiders the title once they've read a script.

2. That this is happening at all. Vin Diesel's most recent big action-type movie is Babylon A.D., which has only made $20 million at the box office and has dropped out of the top 10 in just three weekends. He hasn't had an action movie make more than $100 million since XXX. That was in 2002. The year before, The Fast and the Furious did just as well, and he's coincidentally he's back for the fourth in that franchise after missing out on 2 and making a cameo in 3. Vin Diesel's only recent $100 million movie was The Pacifier -- sooooo not an action movie.

I don't blame Vin for wanting to jump back on the action-movie gravy train from back in his glory days (although sticking with Disney kids' fare might be more lucrative in the long run), but I can't understand why studios are interested in bringing him back to these franchises he left once he thought he was too successful for them. It's not as if he's proven himself such a draw that they need him back. Really, it's the other way around.