10 Interesting Subplots That Were Cut From Comic Book Movies

Blockbusters today tend to suffer from a severe case of bloat. There are too many characters, too much CGI, too much action and they run for close to 3 hours. Audiences have been conditioned to accept this over the years, but it can still be a surprise to learn that despite a generous runtime, major scenes and storylines still end up on the cutting room floor. It could be a subplot that sheds new light on a character, or a major twist that was trimmed to keep things moving. Most comic book movies go through this fat trimming process; usually for the better too, though some movies might have benefitted from the lost scenes staying in. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the coolest subplots that were removed from comic book films, and how they might have affected the final product if they’d remained. They may not have made the final cut, but that doesn’t stop them being pretty neat in their own right. 10) The Thing Raids A Terrorist Base - Fantastic Four It’s likely that a few years from now the uncensored story of what really happened on Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot will emerge, but until then all we’re left with is an unholy mess of a film. For a superhero movie that has remarkably little in the way of action, the decision to cut a major scene where The Thing assaults an enemy base is awfully confusing. This particular sequence was featured prominently in trailers and TV adverts but is nowhere to be found in the final cut. In addition to showing the character in action, the setpiece would have eased the jarring transition from the team’s accident to showing them learning to control their powers a year later. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that we'll ever get to see the scene now, short of it being leaked, of course. 9) Joker And Harley's Bad Romance - Suicide Squad While the studio and David Ayer played down talk of reshoots for Suicide Squad, the film clearly underwent some serious retooling. It's a mishmash of conflicting tones and seemingly important subplots go nowhere, like the sleazy prison guard who gets caught on The Joker’s bad side. Jared Leto has lamented the amount of Joker scenes that were snipped, and we all know that the relationship between Joker and Harley was severely toned down. If you're familiar with the source material, you'll know that the relationship was originally fiery and bizarre, and in the rescue scene in the film, Joker was meant to push Harley out of his helicopter in anger, not to save her life. This eventually prompted Harley to reject her lover when he reappeared in the finale, so she could help the squad instead. Warner Bros. were clearly worried about audience reaction to this subplot, so they removed the nastier elements and made it more of a love story instead. 8) The Skull Cowboy - The Crow Brandon Lee’s tragic death during filming for The Crow forced producers to seriously rethink the movie, and for awhile they considered not releasing it at all. Eventually, they re-edited the footage and shot Lee’s remaining scenes using a stand-in, though one major subplot had to be completely removed. Originally, Eric was mentored by a mysterious character known only as The Skull Cowboy, who would appear from time to time warning him to stick to his revenge mission and leave the living alone. In the original cut, Eric’s decision to save his young friend in the finale is the reason he lost his powers, since The Cowboy warned him not to interfere with human affairs. Unfortunately, Lee died before completing those scenes, so the entire subplot was eventually binned. 7) The Richard Parker Ending - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 It’s clear from early trailers that a lot of material was cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, including a subplot about OsCorp spying on Peter for mysterious reasons. A major sequence was also removed from the ending, where Peter is mourning the death of Gwen Stacy, only to be confronted with his long-missing father Richard at her gravestone. In addition to finally paying off the mystery of his father’s disappearance after two movies, this alternate ending also contained the iconic “with great power comes great responsibility” line that fans had been waiting for. For whatever reason, the studio decided to cut this emotional payoff out so they could tease the mystery for another sequel; big mistake, since there wasn’t another sequel to wrap things up. 6) Skull Vest - The Punisher (1989) While it was hardly a masterpiece to start with, the Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie was roundly lambasted by fans for not having Frank Castle wear his iconic skull. The producers thought he’d look “silly” wearing it, so he sticks to boring biker gear instead. Screenwriter Boaz Yakin tried to get around this by writing a scene intended for the final showdown, where Frank spray paints the skull onto some body armour. The producers still refused to budge on the issue, so the only place the design can be seen in the film is on the handle of Frank's dagger. Interestingly enough, the Tom Jane version features Frank painting the skull logo onto body armour before the final battle, so at least the idea rubbed off on someone. 5) Robin's Cameo - Batman Tim Burton’s Batman didn’t need any help from Robin, though a few scripts tried to squeeze the character in regardless. An early draft featured an action scene where Batman chases the Joker through Gotham on a horse, and to throw the hero off his trail Joker drives through a circus. During this scene, The Flying Graysons are mid-performance when the Joker causes them to fall by setting off a bomb, leaving young Dick as the only survivor. He swings down and helps Batman stop the car, but Joker escapes anyway. This scene would have paved the way for him to appear in a sequel and would have tied Batman and Robin closer together, since they both lost parents to the Joker. In fact, Kiefer Sutherland was initially approached for the role, but when the chase was cut for budget reasons, the cameo was taken out, too. 4) Clone Fight - Judge Dredd The Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd movie is another comic book misfire from the early 1990’s; one that completely misjudged the tone of the comic and the character. Still, it had some arresting visuals and hammy performances, so it’s not a total slog. One bizarre cut in the theatrical version is the moment the villain Rico awakens some evil clones to fight Dredd, and then nothing happens. There's a strange cut, then they disappear. That’s because the scene where they attack was removed since it involved Stallone shotgunning some unarmed dudes who then burst like ripe fruit. The studio wanted to secure a lower rating for the film, so they removed this moment entirely, despite keeping the set up for it. Their quest for a lower rating didn’t even work, since the film still landed an R rating in the U.S. 3) Bruce Overcomes His Guilt - Batman Forever Tim Burton was basically fired from the third Batman movie following a backlash to the dark tone of Returns, as Warner Bros. were keen on a more family-friendly entry. As a result, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever was considerably campier, but the director’s original cut suggested a darker film. The darkness was toned down for cinemas, with a major subplot involving Bruce overcoming guilt about his parent’s murder being removed. After The Riddler’s attack on Wayne Manor, Bruce was supposed to be left with amnesia, and wander into the Batcave to face his fears. There, he finds his father’s old diary, which revealed it was his idea to go to the cinema that night, not Bruce's. Absolved of his guilt, Bruce then faces a giant bat, and while the effects are cheesy, it was still a surprisingly emotional scene. In the final cut, Bruce still feels this guilt, but gets no resolution over it. 2) Bane's Backstory - The Dark Knight Rises Christopher Nolan almost never shares deleted scenes from his movies, feeling they should remain unseen. This hasn’t stopped fan demand to see them, however, and when the costume designer for The Dark Knight Rises detailed a deleted Bane origin story, demand shot way the hell up. This sequence would have further detailed Bane’s hard time in prison and his recruitment by The League of Shadows. He would have had a more primitive early version of his mask, and his training would have mirrored that of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins. Ultimately, Nolan opted to keep Bane’s background as mysterious as possible, so this material was excised. Maybe it will surface someday on a special edition Blu-ray, but for now, it remains under lock and key in the Warner Bros. vault. 1) Custom Web-Shooters - Spider-Man One of the more controversial additions James Cameron brought to his proposed Spider-Man script was the idea that Peter Parker had organic web-shooters, instead of building his own like in the comic. Sam Raimi kept this notion for his version, though some fans weren’t pleased with it. It seems the studio was a little cagey about the idea, though, since the earliest teaser for the film actually shows Peter with custom-built web-shooters instead. Maybe they filmed it both ways in case of a backlash and decided organic shooters were the way to go. A lot of other ideas for the movie were scrapped along the way as well, like Norman Osborn actually morphing into the Green Goblin instead of wearing that tacky mask from the final version.

10 Interesting Subplots That Were Cut From Comic Book Movies

6) Skull Vest – The Punisher (1989)