The film was released on August 9, 2002, which stars Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, a thrill seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman and rebellious athlete-turned-reluctant spy for the National Security Agency who is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorists in Central Europe.

The film was released on April 29, 2005, which stars Ice Cube as Darius Stone, a new agent in the Triple X program, who is sent to Washington, DC to defuse a power struggle amongst national leaders.

The film was released on January 20, 2017, sees the return of Diesel as Xander Cage who comes out of self-imposed exile, thought to be long dead, and is set on a collision course with deadly alpha warrior and his team in a race to recover a sinister and seemingly unstoppable weapon known as Pandora's Box.

Recruiting an all-new group of thrill-seeking cohorts, Xander finds himself enmeshed in a deadly conspiracy that points to collusion at the highest levels of world governments.

[10] Included with the 2005 director's cut DVD of the first film is a four-minute short titled The Final Chapter: The Death of Xander Cage, that serves as a prequel to XXX: State of the Union by detailing the alleged death of Xander Cage before the events of that film.

[23] Adam Smith of Empire magazine called the movie, "Sporadically entertaining, but seriously hampered by a very choppy screenplay", and rating it three out of five stars.

The second film in the series was panned by critics, Boo Allen of the Denton Record Chronicle called it "a chubby, surly, incomprehensible action hero".

[25] Brian Orndorf of FilmJerk.com compared watching the film to running "headfirst at top speed into a brick wall".

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called it "that rare B movie that's rooted in gut-level stirrings of power and retaliation".

[30] Andrew Lapin of Uproxx gave the film a negative review, saying: "There is an intellectual argument to be made in favor of the Fast & Furious franchise, which features diverse casts, operatic plotlines, and cartoon setpieces that often look like a child assembled them out of Hot Wheels sets.

The series is no longer interested in aping James Bond, lacking as it does a decent gadget or supervillain and often highlighting the sidekicks at the expense of Xander himself.