xXx: The Return of Xander Cage has a new director, as Ericson Core steps in to take over from Rob Cohen, who bounced to develop another project, Medieval. I haven't seen the second, Diesel-less film, but I hear it's eluded to that his character, Xander Cage, bought the farm. It's amazing what a string of flops can do you bring certain characters back to life. Diesel pulled out of his two biggest franchises, this and the Fast and the Furious movies, when he probably thought he could get better roles. One Chronicles of Riddick, and a couple of straight-to-DVD's later, and someone has found some humility. Core previously directed Invincible with Mark Wahlberg, and was the director of photography on the first Fast and the Furious film.