xXx 2: Why Vin Diesel's Xander Cage Was Killed Offscreen
Here's why Vin Diesel's Xander Cage was abruptly killed offscreen during xXx: State Of The Union. Vin Diesel has fully embraced sequels and franchises, after largely avoiding them early in his career. He exited 2 Fast 2 Furious as he disliked the script and later did the same for xXx: State Of The Union. The original xXx cast him as Xander Cage, an extreme sports addict who is (very) reluctantly recruited by the NSA to infiltrate a terrorist group.
The first xXx was very much designed as a riff on the James Bond series. 007 was seen as somewhat stale during this period, and Diesel's Cage was intended to be everything James Bond wasn't; xXx even battled Die Another Day at the box office in 2002. This formula worked for the first movie, but Diesel later exited xXx 2 during development. At the time, he claimed he didn't want to make another sequel so soon after The Chronicles Of Riddick, but he later admitted he didn't like the script that was being developed. Ultimately, Ice Cube was cast as a new character named Darius Stone, who took the xXx mantle to take down a conspiracy in Washington.
xXx: State Of The Union proved to be a box-office bomb, receiving scathing reviews for its poor screenplay and reliance on cartoonish CGI during major setpieces. The movie also threw some low-key shade towards Vin Diesel, with the partner of Scott Speedman's NSA agent casually revealing Xander Cage was killed in Bora Bora the day before. The franchise doubled down on this with the short film The Final Chapter: The Death of Xander Cage, which depicted the demise of Cage - whose face is never seen as he's played by Diesel's stunt double Khristian Lupo - in an explosion. The death of Cage isn't particularly essential to xXx 2's story so it's surprising the sequel would so definitively rule out a potential return, though the director of the original movie later revealed why Cage died in such an abrupt manner.
Rob Cohen directed Diesel in both the original The Fast And The Furious and xXx and was particularly keen on helming sequels to the latter. It appears Diesel departing xXx: State Of The Union caused a rift between the actor and director, as Cohen later told Mandatory in 2012 that Xander Cage's xXx 2 death was a result of this. He stated of the short that “Well, I was so mad at Vin at that time but yes, I always felt like that was like an oddity and that we would want to bring him back and give him a backstory.” The short film itself was included on Cohen's xXx Unrated Director's Cut.
In this interview, Cohen was specifically referring to plans for him and Diesel to reunite for a sequel called xXx 3D, which ultimately didn't happen. Cohen only served as executive producer on the sequel and claimed in other interviews he was unhappy with the direction xXx: State Of The Union tried to take the series. It appears he and other producers were angry with Vin Diesel's departure, so they decided to offhandedly kill the character and focus on their planned xXx anthology concept. This didn't ultimately pan out, however, and Diesel returned for xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage - which didn't even try to address his "demise" in The Death of Xander Cage.
Source: Screenrant
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