Ip Man star Donnie Yen joins the cast of xXx: The Return of Xander Cage

Martial arts icon and ‘Ip Man’ star to face off against Vin Diesel in sequel to revolution studios blockbuster.

International martial arts star Donnie Yen ‘Ip Man’ will square off against Vin Diesel in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’. Yen will play an alpha-warrior named Xiang in the hotly anticipated sequel, which is shooting in Toronto and the Dominican Republic this month for revolution studios, Roth Kirschenbaum films, one race films and paramount pictures.

Yen co-stars with producer and star diesel in a cast that also includes Bollywood star Deepika Padukone (‘Tamasha’), Tony Jaa (‘Ong-Bak’, ‘Furious 7’), Ruby Rose (‘Orange is the New Black’), mixed martial-arts sensation Conor Mcgregor, Nina Dobrev (‘The Vampire Diaries’), Kris Wu (‘Somewhere Only We Know’), Hermione Corfield (‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’), with Toni Collette (‘The Sixth Sense’) and Samuel l. Jackson (‘The Hateful Eight’).

D.J. caruso (‘I Am Number Four’) is directing xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’. The film is written by Chad St. John (‘London Has Fallen’) with current revisions by F. Scott Frazier (‘Collide’).

Yen is coming off the New Zealand-based shoot of the upcoming ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny’, in which he stars opposite Michelle Yeoh. One of the world’s top martial-arts film stars, Yen is best known in the U.S. for his role opposite Jet Li in director Zhang Yimou’s ‘Hero’, the third-highest-grossing foreign-language release of all time in the U.S. he co-starred in the Jackie Chan-Owen Wilson action-comedy ‘Shanghai Knights’ and performed the title role in the hugely influential ‘Ip Man’ franchise, one of the highest grossing film series in Chinese history.

Yen’s numerous other films include 'Dragon', which premiered to acclaim at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and the Chinese blockbuster 'The Monkey King' as the monkey king, opposite chow Yun-Fat. Yen, who was born in canton, china, and raised in Boston, is one of the top action choreographers and has served as action director in dozens of films and has won numerous awards. He is currently developing a series of films for his own companies, bullet group ltd and bullet films productions, including the epic crime drama 'Dragon City'.

“There are only a handful of martial-arts stars who have crossed over to worldwide fame and Donnie yen is the top of that elite cohort,” said revolution CEO Vince Totino, who is executive producing the film along with Chief Operating Officer Scott Hemming.

“Donnie’s fighting skill and on-screen charisma make him a perfect foil for Vin,” said producer Joe Roth, who recently partnered with Jeffrey Kirschenbaum in their new venture, Roth Kirschenbaum films. “We are all excited to see these two great action stars go toe to toe.”

Donnie Yen just completed co-starring in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' for Lucasfilm and Disney.

The film will be released in India by viacom18 motion pictures.