9 Incredibly Important Movie Characters Who Were Killed Off Screen

7. Xander Cage - xXx: State Of The Union

James Bond on a skateboard. Extreme 007. GoldenEye with a nu metal soundtrack. However you want to label it, Vin Diesel's attempt to create a spy thriller franchise pretty much fizzled out, even after the first xXx (the random capital letter makes X-tra special) put up Fast and Furious numbers at the box office.

Most of that is due to Diesel's reluctance to get onboard with the sequel because he felt the script "didn't feel xXx." That didn't stop the studio from performing the ever-popular switcheroo, tossing Ice Cube into the role for the next film.

Rather than call the movie something else entirely, however, they opted to stick with the xXx branding, which meant they had to explain to audiences why Xander Cage was suddenly the former member of NWA. They did this by a) killing off Diesel's character via offscreen explosion, and b) retconning the core concept of the movie, claiming that xXx is simply a codename for any secret agent hired by the NSA (despite the fact that Xander Cage called himself "xXx" before he was ever hired by the government agency).

Anyhow, literally blowing Cage up was a terrible idea, both for the story and for any future franchise prospects, as screenwriters will now have to find a way to retcon the story again if Diesel has his way and stars in another sequel.