xXx was launched as a rival spy franchise to the James Bond movies, but the Xander Cage character was originally conceived of as the son of 007.
xXx’s Xander Cage was originally conceived of as the son of James Bond. Following his exit from 2 Fast 2 Furious, Vin Diesel moved to xXx, playing extreme sports star Xander Cage. Xander is reluctantly recruited by the NSA to infiltrate a terrorist group, as traditional agents proved unsuited to the job.
The Bourne Identity has since been credited with reinventing the spy genre in the 21st century, with its grounded tone and gritty aesthetic even influencing the Bond series, beginning with 2006’s Casino Royale. However, xXx set itself up to be that genre gamechanger and was designed to show that Bond and similar spy movies were outdated and needed a shakeup.
xXx was a box-office rival to Die Another Day, the movie that proved to be Pierce Brosnan’s final 007 adventure. xXx lost that particular race, but it was still a comfortable success. Still, it never became the blockbuster franchise Sony hoped for.
Diesel exited xXx 2 during development, with the eventual Ice Cube-fronted sequel being a flop. xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage brought Diesel back to the series after a 15-year gap, and while it once again proved a success, a lawsuit has since stalled progress on further entries.
xXx is chockful of James Bond easter eggs, opening with a 007 inspired secret agent being killed to Cage’s American flag parachute in the finale being a nod to Bond’s Union Jack chute from The Spy Who Loved Me.
The influence of the Bond movie series on xXx is plain to see, but when writer Rich Wilkes originally conceived of the concept, the 007 link was much heavier. While discussing the original movie with the SpyHards podcast, Wilkes admitted his first idea for xXx was that Xander Cage would actually be James Bond’s son.
Wilkes cited the Roger Moore Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, and For Your Eyes Only as being the ones that got him into the series. He also felt that with so many years of 007 running around the world sleeping with different women, the odds are good he would have children he’d never met.
xXx’s Xander Cage was designed to be one of those children, but instead of drinking martinis and driving fancy cars, he drank beer and was into extreme sports. The idea of Cage – who was killed offscreen in xXx 2 – being Bond’s “b**tard son” seemed like a great idea to Wilkes, though he quickly realized he would have to reshape the idea into something that had no links to Bond.
Interestingly, Wilkes suggested this first concept for xXx would have seen Xander Cage tracking down James Bond, who the screenwriter described as a “bad guy” in this take. If viewed as an unofficial spinoff of the Moore-era Bond movies, xXx works surprisingly well, and there’s nothing to say they couldn’t exist in the same universe. Given the James Bond franchise’s general aversion to spinoffs – which includes all but burying the James Bond Jr cartoon series – those links never had a chance of becoming official.
