Actors Whose Roles In Movie Were Cut Down Or Scrapped

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First, Simone Ashley — fresh off her starring role in Bridgerton Season 2 — was announced to star in F1: The Movie alongside Brad Pitt and Damson Idris. She was spotted filming alongside Damson and even attended the Miami Grand Prix and the F1 Grand Prix in Monaco, in support of the film. However, upon the film's release, Simone's role was reduced to a seconds-long cameo with no dialogue, with director Joseph Kosinski saying, "It happens on every film, where you have to shoot more than you can use. There were two or three storylines that ultimately didn't make it into the final cut."
He added to People, "But Simone, she's an incredible talent, incredible actress, incredible singer, and I would love to work with her again." Simone's role being drastically reduced sparked a discussion online with people noticing a pattern of actors of color being cast in movies, only for their roles to be cut down or cut entirely.
Ana de Armas was initially cast in Danny Boyle's Yesterday as a character named Roxanne, who was going to become another love interest for Jack, played by Himesh Patel. However, screenwriter Richard Curtis told CinemaBlend that after test audiences didn't like the additional love interest, they ultimately cut Ana from the movie. He said, "That was a very traumatic cut, because she was brilliant in it. I mean, really radiant. And [that] turned out to be the problem."
Richard continued, saying, "You know, it's one of those things where it's some of our favorite scenes from the film, but we had to cut them for the sake of the whole."However, Ana was featured in an early trailer for the film, which ultimately led to fans suing Universal over her absence from the movie.
In 2018, Harry Shum Jr. was set to appear as the beloved Charlie Wu in Crazy Rich Asians, which is based on the bestselling book series by Kevin Kwan. Charlie is a main character in the books; however, despite filming numerous scenes for the film adaptation — including Astrid and Charlie dancing at the wedding — Harry's role was cut, and he only appeared in a mid-credits scene. Director Jon M. Chu told Entertainment Weekly, "But the problem was, it made Astrid feel like she was leaving Michael for Charlie, and we didn't have enough room to expand on the idea. We just had to stay focused. Ultimately, it's about her independence, so that scene was in there all the way until the very end."
Even though Crazy Rich Asians received worldwide praise and box office success, a sequel has been in limbo for years now. The sequel was expected to follow Kevin's second book in the series, China Rich Girlfriend, which shows Astrid and Charlie's romance having a more central role.
In 2018, Manny Jacinto was cast as Fritz, a pilot, in Top Gun: Maverick, the highly anticipated sequel to Top Gun. At the time, Manny was in the middle of starring in The Good Place, with Season 3 of the show just airing. But, despite enduring months of training in actual fighter jets and more, when Top Gun: Maverick finally hit theaters in 2022, Manny suddenly had no dialogue, and he was reduced to an extra. In 2024, he told GQ, "It kind of fuels you, because at the end of the day, Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise. It's up to us — Asian Americans, people of color — to be that [for ourselves]."
He added, "We can't wait for somebody else to do it. If we want bigger stories out there, we have to make them for ourselves." Manny also told GQ, "It's flattering that there was a little bit of an outcry, but it wasn't shocking to me. There was this sense of where the film was going [on set], like I can see them focusing the camera more on these [other] guys and not taking so much time on our scenes. Fortunately, it still was a great experience — you get to see this huge machine at work, see how Tom Cruise works, and you get to be a small part of this huge franchise."
Fresh off her work in Moon Knight in 2022, May Calamawy was cast in Gladiator II alongside Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal. She filmed the movie in Morocco alongside the rest of the cast and was even featured in behind-the-scenes photos from Pedro, but when the movie hit theaters in 2024, she was absent and was only spotted very briefly in the background of a scene. Producers later confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that May was cut from the movie entirely due to the long runtime, with the movie initially being 3 hours and 40 minutes.
Despite producers insisting that runtime concern was the reason May was cut from the final version of Gladiator II, some outlets speculated whether her support of Palestine was a reason, with May being Egyptian and Palestinian.
Sterling K. Brown was initially cast in M. Night Shyamalan's Split. This was before he earned critical acclaim for The People Vs. O.J. Simpson and This Is Us. Despite filming numerous scenes, when Split was released in 2016, Sterling's character of Professor Shaw, Dr. Fletcher's neighbor, was totally cut from the final film. Shyamalan said the original director's cut was around three hours, which led to some storylines being trimmed or cut entirely.
Before introducing the deleted scene featuring Sterling for the DVD extras, Shyamalan explained that the character and scene took too much attention away from the main character. He said Shaw was initially scripted to give more background into Dissociative Identity Disorder.
A year before Grey's Anatomy made her a household name in 2005, Ellen Pompeo was supposed to star in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind alongside Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, and many more. Writer Charlie Kaufman originally wrote scenes featuring Naomi, played by Ellen, who was Joel's girlfriend, whom he left to be with Clementine. The scenes showed Joel and Naomi together, but they were ultimately cut from the final movie.
In 2025, Ellen spoke about being cut from the film while attending a Tribeca Festival Storytellers event. She said, per People, "And Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, yeah? Which I got completely cut, got completely cut out of because Kate Winslet is in the movie, of course, like you have Kate Winslet, you definitely don't need me."
Kevin Costner was supposed to play Alex Marshall in The Big Chill, but all of his scenes were cut from the final version. The movie notably follows a group of friends coming together after the death of one of their close college friends, Alex. So, ultimately, Alex is not actually seen in the movie at all. In 2025, while appearing on Watch What Happens Live, Glenn Close talked about Kevin being cut from the movie, saying, "Larry Kasdan, who was the director, co-writer of The Big Chill, felt so badly — because Larry is such a good person — that he made him a star in Silverado. He put him in Silverado, and it made Kevin a star.'
Glenn also confirmed that the body being prepared was actually played by Kevin. She said, "Yes, it was Kevin because he was supposed to be in the movie. He was in the epilogue, and they cut the epilogue."
In 1991, Ed O'Neill was set to appear in John Milius' war film Flight of the Intruder alongside Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, and Brad Johnson. But, when the movie was screened for a test audience, Ed's appearance was met with laughter because they could not separate him from his role as Al Bundy in Married...with Children, which was in its sixth season at the time. Speaking to the LA Times in 1990 about being cut from the film, Ed said, "I don't feel good about what happened. As an actor, it's kind of frightening. It shows what TV can do to you. At the same time, I can't complain about what the series has given me. It's a double-edged sword."
According to the LA Times, Ed had done "two days of work" on Flight of the Intruder, and the role was meant to be an unbilled cameo. Ed said, "My scene comes an hour or so into the picture. There's no introduction to my character — I come from out of nowhere. Suddenly, there I am, in a uniform, walking around this table at a court martial. I think that, to audiences who aren't expecting me, it's as if Al Bundy's suddenly appeared. It's like Al Bundy Joins the Army."
In The Avengers, Ashley Johnson has a very brief appearance as Beth, a waitress whom Captain America saves during the Battle of New York. But, Ashley's role was initially supposed to be much bigger, with deleted scenes showing Beth actually meeting Steve at the beginning of the movie, and appearing more throughout the battle. There were also rumors she was meant to have a recurring role, even possibly serving as a love interest for Steve.
Many fans have joked that Ashley is the most award-decorated MCU actor, having won BAFTAs for her work as Ellie Williams in The Last of Us video games.
British comedian Rik Mayall was cast in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as Peeves, the mischievous poltergeist who roams Hogwarts. Despite Rik filming scenes as Peeves, the book character was eventually cut from the movie adaptation. Rick reportedly said he was also "sent off the set" because he kept making the cast and crew laugh during filming.
Director Chris Columbus said that the first cut of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was nearly three hours, which resulted in some things from the book being cut out of the final version, including Peeves. When asked by The Wrap about whether he would ever release a director's cut of the movie, Chris said, "We have to put Peeves back in the movie, who was cut from the movie!"
Naomi Scott was cast as Ryoko in Ridley Scott's sci-fi movie The Martian alongside Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, and more. Despite filming scenes for the movie, Naomi was cut out of the final version. In an interview with Collider in 2021, Naomi explained why her dialogue-heavy scene was likely chopped, effectively cutting her out of the film, saying, "There was one dialogue scene and then I was in scenes, but just there. So there was this one dialogue scene. It was this science jargon. Ridley Scott was behind this curtain, and I was just, mate, I just choked."
She continued, saying, "And do you know what? I think it's so important to just talk about moments where you choke, because they really do inform your experiences, and they really do force you to kind of reconcile whatever those insecurities that you have are and face them. Anyone out there, in whatever field of work, and you think of that time that you wanted the ground to swallow you up, let me tell you, we've all been there. I've been there in front of Ridley Scott. I was choking. I couldn't get these words out. I couldn't get these jargon words out."
Jack Whitehall was supposed to play Gothi, a troll priest, in Disney's blockbuster hit Frozen. On The Tonight Show in 2018, Jack said he had one line. He went in, recorded the line, and proceeded to "tell everyone I'd ever met I was going to be in Frozen." However, when the movie came out, Jack's character remained, but his one line was scrapped, thus effectively cutting him from the film.
In a recent comedy set, Jack joked about all the misses he's had in his career, including Frozen. He said, "Film comes out. I am watching Frozen on the screen. It gets to the bit in the enchanted forest. I see my character there in front of me. Gothi the troll. The fat little fucker, right there. He clears his throat. He goes to speak. And the camera cuts away to Princess Elsa. And she starts singing some lame Disney song about being a princess."
In 2016, Jena Malone was set to star in Zack Snyder's Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice as Jenet Klyburn, a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist. Despite having filmed numerous scenes, Jena's character was cut from the theatrical version of the movie. Her role remained a secret until her scenes were included in the ultimate edition cut that was released.
When news of her casting initially broke and she was spotted on set, fans speculated that she might be playing Barbara Gordon/Batgirl.
Anna Paquin played Rogue in three X-Men films, starting in 2000. She was slated to reprise her role for X-Men: Days of Future Past, with a pretty significant storyline, but she was cut from the final version, except for a brief cameo. Director Bryan Singer explained at the time, "Like many things in the editing process, it was an embarrassment of riches and it was just one of the things that had to go. Unfortunately, it was the one and only sequence Anna Paquin was in; the Rogue character was in. Even though she's in the materials and part of the process of making the film, she won't appear in it."
Speaking about being cut from the movie years later, Anna told Entertainment Weekly, "Those films have really, really interesting, let's call it, processes as far as how the scripts come about and they change so many times over the course of shooting. And having done a bunch of 'em already, I wasn't massively surprised that the stuff shot first week of photography didn't really fit by the end, six months later."In 2019, five years after the release of the movie, fans fought to get Fox to release "The Rogue Cut" of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Katherine Langford was originally going to appear in Avengers: Endgame as an older version of Morgan Stark, Tony and Pepper's daughter. She was set to appear in the metaphysical way station, like Thanos did in Infinity War, after Tony uses the Infinity Stones. Ultimately, Katherine's scenes were cut from Endgame entirely, with director Anthony Russo explaining, "We realized that we didn't feel an emotional association with his adult daughter... It wasn't ringing to us [or] resonating with us on an emotional level."
Eventually, when Avengers: Endgame hit Disney+, Katherine's deleted scenes were released. The moment feature Katherine's Morgan telling Tony that she'll be okay, even though he'll be gone. The scene ends with Tony telling Morgan, "I love you 3,000," a callback to an earlier moment in the movie.
Shailene Woodley was cast as Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. But when the film was released in 2014, all of Shailene's scenes opposite Andrew's Peter Parker were cut. Speaking about the decision to exclude MJ from the movie, director Marc Webb told the LA Times, "It was very difficult to introduce someone as a competing love interest when so much is on the table with Peter and Gwen."
He added, "Shailene is a brilliant actress, and she did a great couple days of work ... It was something we only discovered when we were shooting and then in the edit room."
Right after her breakout role in Game of Thrones, Jessica Henwick's first big movie role was set to be in Godzilla vs. Kong in 2018. When the film was eventually released, Jessica Henwick, alongside Zhang Ziyi, was totally scrapped from the movie. Eiza González, who starred as Maia Simmons, said that because of Jessica's role getting cut, she also saw her scenes reduced, saying, "Jessica getting cut out of the movie really affected all of the other characters."
Eiza added, "But it wasn't anything to do with Jessica's character. It was just that the storyline changed because the movie is called Godzilla vs. Kong, and it obviously has to serve them."Lance Reddick's role was also reduced to just about two scenes.
And finally, Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. He filmed several scenes from the movie, but was then fired by director Robert Zemeckis. Reportedly, Michael J. Fox was always the first choice for Marty, but he initially couldn't do the movie. However, once Eric was fired, Michael was brought in, and all of Eric's scenes were re-shot.
In an interview with Bob Costas years later, Eric explained that they were "pretty far" into filming when he was replaced. Speaking about being fired, Eric said, "[Robert] was very nice, well as nice as you can be when you're firing someone, but he said that I wasn't giving the performance that he wanted for his film, which I can respect."
We can't fit everyone into one post, so which other actors were either completely cut from movies or reduced to a much smaller role? Tell us your favorites in the comments below!
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