List of cut content

During the creation and writing of a movie a lot of ideas are brought up, some make it into the final film but a lot of ideas are scraped and left on the cutting room floor. Locations, characters, action scenes and plot points can all be thought up during the creative process but don't however actually make it into the finished product.

X-Men

• Colorful costumes similar to the comics were considered and concepted for the film, however director Bryan Singer decided to go instead with the black leather seen in the film.
• Similar to Magneto's and Rogue's background segments, scenes explaining Storm's and Cyclops' backgrounds were scripted and storyboarded, but never shot. Storm's background segment involved her changing the weather drastically in her hometown in Kenya and causing vast damage. Cyclops' story would show him manifesting his mutant power at school as a teenager, causing him to accidentally destroy a school bathroom (which was later shot and used in X-Men Apocalypse (2016)). There was a brief talk of shooting these scenes while shooting X2: X-Men United (2003) in order to insert them into the X-Men Special Edition DVD, but the idea was later scrapped. However, the bathroom set (which had actually been built) was used for the scene in X2 where Grace drugs the drunken guard.
• Gambit was originally going to make a cameo appearance in the film, as a student playing with a basketball and then blowing it up. Bryan Singer rejected the cameo, thinking the audience wouldn't understand it: "People would be like, what's wrong with those basketballs?"
• Originally Dr. Hank "Beast" McCoy was going to be in the final film, but was cut out to be saved for the sequels, and some of his professions were incorporated into Jean Grey: a medical doctor, and a political supporter of mutant rights.
• The Danger Room, a training facility at the X-Mansion, was going to be in the film. However the filmmakers, after a lot of debate, cut it out of the script to make the film move faster.
• In 1996, Michael Chabon wrote a draft of the script: the X-Men (Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, Storm, Psylocke, Nightcrawler and new members Wolverine and Jubilee) would face off against a phantom menace (the Brotherhood, who wouldn't reveal themselves until the sequel), with major focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Jubilee.
• In 1994, screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker wrote a draft of the script: the X-Men (Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, Angel and new member Wolverine) must stop the Brotherhood of Mutants (Magneto, Sabretooth, Toad and new member the Blob) from conquering New York City, while at the same time are set upon by a triplet of Sentinels, robots created by anti-mutant government officials Henry Peter Gyrich and Bolivar Trask. The script focused on the rivalry between Cyclops and Wolverine, and had Magneto the cause of the Chernobyl disaster; also included was the X-Copter and the Danger Room. The script was never used, but dialogue/plot elements were used in the film's official novel adaptation.
• The Blob was considered as a character in the first X-Men film, but did not make it past the concept stage. A hidden Easter egg on the first X-Men DVD release shows concept art of the Blob and Beast. Originally he was going to be a member of the Brotherhood but was cut due to the expensive prosthetics needed for the role.

X2: X-Men United

• Initially, during the "Dark Cerebro" scene where it is attempting to kill all mutants, Bryan Singer had planned to show not only Cerebro's effects on the mutants in the Alkali Base, but mutants all over the world. During this scene, Hank McCoy, aka Beast (Steve Bacic), as seen earlier on the television during the bar scene, was to be shown in agony, transforming into his furry form, and fan-favorite Gambit was to be shown at a card game having his energy powers flare up. This scene was actually shot, using one of Hugh Jackman's stunt men, James Bamford as a stand-in for the role, shot from behind to remain ambiguous. For whatever reason, Singer decided to cut this sequence altogether and it remains unseen.
• A scene involving the Danger Room was planned but cut due to budget constrictions.
• Several sets for the film were not used. Some of these sets included the Danger Room and several areas in Stryker's underground bunker. One room in Stryker's underground base was going to be the setting of a Nightcrawler vs. Toad fight.
• Guy Hendrix Dyas and sculptor James Jones collaborated on designing a Sentinel (in the comics, the Sentinels were a set of mutant-fighting robots constructed by anti-mutant government officials). Their final design was a complex hollow robot that could compress itself into a discus. Animating the Sentinel would have cost about seven million, so the Sentinel was never used in the film.
• Tyler Mane and Ray Park were originally set to return as Sabretooth and Toad, until it was felt that the script was already overloaded with too many mutants. Toad was supposed to have a fight scene against Nightcrawler.
• Character-development-heavy scenes of Cyclops and Professor X being brainwashed by Stryker were shot, but Fox cut them out because of time length and story complications. David Hayter was disappointed, feeling that James Marsden deserved more screentime.
• Angel and Beast were part of the original script but were dropped as it was felt that there were too many characters, and saved for X-Men: The Last Stand.
• Beast and Gambit were considered as new characters but they ultimately went with Nightcrawler because he was the most outsider-like of the choices.
• The Danger Room, the area where the X-Men train and hone their powers, was going to be included in this film. Bryan Singer had wanted it to appear in the first film, but due to budget cuts, the idea had to be scrapped. It was then worked into the story for this film, to take place when Wolverine is left to watch after the students in the mansion. He decides to do a workout in the Danger Room, which was going to segue into the scene of him lying down and having a vision of Stryker and his Weapon X procedure. The Danger Room was going to be a cylindrical-shaped room, with different sections of the floor raising and lowering at dangerous speeds, as well as holographic projectiles, etc. The earliest teaser trailer for the film gave a sneak peak at how the Danger Room was going to look, but shortly after this teaser was released, Fox cut Singer's budget down from $125 million to $110 million, forcing Singer to once again cut the Danger Room from the film. There is still a small reference to the Danger Room remaining in the film: when Stryker first enters the X-Mansion subbasement, directly opposite from the elevator is a door with a small label on it, which, according to Singer's DVD commentary track, identifies the door as the entrance to the Danger Room.
• There was an extended scene that doesn't appear in the final film, nor as a deleted scene on the DVD that features Cyclops's fight with Yuriko (Lady Deathstrike), where he picks up and fights with the two prison guards' plastic nightsticks.
• Gambit was originally going to have a cameo during the brainwashed Professor X's telepathic attack on the mutants, which would have caused his cards to explode.

X-Men: The Last Stand

• The original plot for X3 was vastly different then the movie that was made. When Bryan Singer was still attached as director the plot of the film focused solely on the Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix storyline. It would have shown a god like Jean causing massive amounts of destruction and the X-Men trying to stop her. Eventually Jean would have taken control and left the planet at the end due to her uncontrollable power. The X-Men team would have consisted of Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Angel, Beast, Colossus, Gambit, Iceman, Rogue and Shadowcat.
• In an alternate script for X3 written by Michael Dougherty Cyclops did not die but had a much larger role. The Danger Room was built by Cyclops due to his guilt over Jean Grey's death. He felt the X-Men were too weak and too untrained, which resulted in her death so he built the room to make them a stronger team. At the end he and a Phoenix possessed Jean, have a heartfelt momment before she leaves earth due to fear of becoming too powerful. [1]
• Nightcrawler was going to make a cameo appearance in the film; Alan Cumming, who'd played Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 (2003), was going to reprise the role, despite his discomfort with the prosthetic makeup he had to wear for his role. The cameo was so short, however, that the filmmakers felt the long and costly makeup process was not worthwhile, so he was omitted from the film
• Fox originally intended this to be the final "X-Men" film featuring any of the original cast, forming a trilogy somewhat akin to the "Star Wars" films, with possible spin offs based on individual characters from the series beginning with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). Late in post-production, the studio reversed this intent, and director Brett Ratner re-edited and re-shot scenes to make the film more open-ended.
• As originally scripted, the Golden Gate Bridge sequence was originally in the middle of the film; Magneto was to have moved it to Alcatraz Island to free Mystique, as the facility would have been revived as a special mutant prison. The final battle was to take place in Washington, D.C., which was set to be home to Worthington Labs. Thus, Magneto's plan would have been twofold: destroy the "cure" and take control of the White House. However, when Brett Ratner signed to direct, he decided the bridge sequence would create a more dramatic climax if moved to the end, so the script was rewritten to have Alcatraz transformed into the Worthington Labs facility (which is somewhat strange, since Alcatraz is a National Monument, and thus cannot be owned or altered by a private company).
• Gambit was going to appear in the film and would have been a love interest of Rogue and a rival for Iceman, similar to how Kitty Pryde was Rogue's rival for Iceman's affections. However, Fox was developing X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and stipulated that no mutant could appear in both X-Films, and so Gambit was removed from the script.
• Colossus was intended to have a much larger presence (including a fight scene with both Juggernaut and Magneto, who throws Colossus away when he armors up). Almost the entirety of his role is deleted, and he appears in a non-speaking background role for the entirety of the film.
• There was an unfilmed Danger Room sequence where Bobby and Kitty are training and are then supposedly blasted to pieces by Sentinels, only to sit up as (projected) skeletons as the team looks on.
• Actress Beverley Mahood was considered for the role of Dazzler, a mutant with the ability to control any form of light. The role was later dropped when Bryan Singer left the production.
• Bryan Singer's plans for the film before his departure were to feature the Jean Grey resurrection plotline and to introduce the characters of Gambit. Singer wanted Keanu Reeves to play Gambit.
• An early draft of the script leaked onto the Internet in June 2005 during Matthew Vaughn's brief tenure as director. The script contained notable deleted scenes and characters, including a sequence in which Kitty and Beast break into Worthington Labs to further research the "cure" serum, lifted directly from Joss Whedon's "Gifted" storyline, and a sexual relationship between Storm and Wolverine. This draft also included the character of Cecilia Reyes, a mutant scientist and rival of Dr. Kavita Rao. Somewhat ironically, Shohreh Aghdashloo was originally cast as Reyes before the character was eliminated and the actress recast as Rao instead. This version of the script also sparked the controversy surrounding the reduced screen time of Cyclops, Mystique and Professor X. In order to combat negative buzz surrounding the film, director Brett Ratner ordered several major changes in editing, and shot several new scenes to leave the film more open-ended, allowing potential for future sequels: originally Cyclops was to die on screen, murdered by Jean Grey, Professor X's death was meant to be definitive, as was the loss of Mystique's powers. Ratner re-edited Cyclops' scene to only imply his death, leaving the potential for the character to return in future sequels and added the after-credits coda of Moira MacTaggart discovering Xavier's mind transferred to a new body. Also scripted, but not shot, were scenes of Jean Grey's grave-site exploding in a fireball, implying her resurrection, and a scene of Mystique playing chess with Magneto, where she offers him a drug that will restore his powers.
• There is a rumored ending where Pyro returns to the school after being presumed missing in the final cut.
• According to the audio commentary of X-Men: The Last Stand, Gambit was to appear in the prison convoy scene of the movie, before the character was cut. In the commentary of the movie, the director Brett Ratner also reveals that they did seriously consider putting Gambit in the movie but decided against it as they thought it was too small a role for such a big character.

Alternate Storyboards

After Cyclops misses the session in the danger room, Wolverine goes looking for him. He climbs the side of the mansion to peer into Scott's room. Scott is in bed with a random woman, he awakes to find Wolverine at the window and fires a blast knocking Logan far into the field. Wolverine finds Hank McCoy standing in his way, stating that he has an appointment with the Professor. Wolverine tries to go back to the mansion to fight Cyclops but he ends up getting beaten up by beast.

Alternate Phoenix fight scene set in Washington, features Jean killing Magneto and Angel in costume fighting with the team, including a non deceased Cyclops.

Alternate Danger Room scene featuring Kitty and Bobby being hunted by sentinels and mutant killers, they are found and killed but the simulation reverts to normal. Wolverine, Hank, Storm and Professor X. are watching the simulation, Rogue appears and Wolverine asks where she's been, since she was supposed to be part of the simulation.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

To be added

X-Men: First Class

• The film was originally to be a prequel about Magneto. Screenwriter Sheldon Turner wrote a treatment which he described as "X-Men (2000) meets The Pianist (2002)": the story focused on Magneto's early years as a prisoner of war in a Nazi concentration camp, until liberation by a squad of Allied Forces led by Charles Xavier. They later meet after the war and become friends, and later become rivals. The studio decided to change the film's direction to the early years of the X-Men, but incorporated aspects of Turner's script into the film.
• A psychic battle was originally in the script between Emma and Charles, however due to the film Inception coming out around the same time, which contained similar elements it was written out. The concept would later be reused in X-Men:Apocalypse between Charles and Apocalypse.
• The ending fight between Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr was going to have them use their powers, but Matthew Vaughn reasoned that since it was an origin story about the early X-Men the fight had to be a more conventional brawl: "Fox were saying, people want to see super heroes use their powers... but not in this film. Sometimes they just want to punch each other. That, to me, is what's different."

The Wolverine

• According to James Mangold, the film had started out as a prequel to X-Men (2000), but later he decided to make it a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): "I wanted to tell the story without the burden of handing it off to a film that already exists and having to conform to it. The ideas of immortality reign very heavily in this story, and the burden of immortality weighs heavily on Logan. For me that's such an interesting part of Logan's character that it is nearly impossible to explore in a prequel."
• Early drafts would have had Logan as the only mutant character.
• The Wolverine co-writer Mark Bomback revealed that Rogue was originally intended to appear in the film, but was written out. She was going to appear to try and convince Logan to come back to the X-Men.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

• Jason Flemyng was originally set to reprise his role as Azazel when Matthew Vaughn was still set to direct. When Vaughn left, the storyline was dropped in favor of the time travel/crossover storyline, and Azazel's role cut from the script to accommodate characters from the original "X-Men" film series. Flemyng still appears in an autopsy photograph of Azazel in the film.
• Jubilee was originally up to be a member of Bishop's team of mutants from the future but was scrapped.
• A romantic subplot between Storm and Wolverine in the future was filmed but cut for runtime purposes.
• Angel, Azazel, Riptide, and Emma were originally going to return, but when the filmmakers decided to go with the "Days of Future Past" story they had them all killed off.
• When Matthew Vaughn was set to direct, Juggernaut was going to be the one who broke Magneto out of prison. Josh Helman had been cast in the role. When Bryan Singer took over directing duties, he decided to use Quicksilver instead, as Juggernaut had already been used in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). Helman was recast as the young William Stryker.
• Simon Kinberg's original script reportedly followed the original storyline more closely with the character of Rachel Grey sending Wolverine back, but eventually replaced her with Kitty and upgraded her phasing/intangibility to being able to phase things through time.
• Mystique rescues Havok, Ink and Toad from Stryker in Vietnam; later in the film when Magneto makes his broadcast, Ink and Toad are seen but not Havok. Havok was to be captured and used to test a prototype Sentinel. This was left out of the film for running time purposes.
• A sequence where Mystique returns to the X-Mansion following Xavier contacting her telepathically in the Paris airport was filmed but cut. In this sequence, Wolverine would explain the origin of the Sentinels and the Future War, and Mystique would have a romantic encounter with Beast, carrying over on a subplot from X-Men: First Class (2011).
• Originally Raven was to choose to go with Charles instead of Erik, and would appear in the altered future teaching a biology class with an older Hank; meanwhile, Logan would be retrieved from the Potomac River by Stryker, thus bringing around the Weapon X story arc. The filmmakers felt this was too predictable and a sad ending, so it was changed to Raven simply escaping and making her own agenda (under Stryker's form), to make the ending more unexpected.
• When Matthew Vaughn was going to direct, he was going to make the film a direct sequel to X-Men: First Class (2011) and have it set in the 1970s. Early ideas included an opening with the Kennedy assassination being caused by Magneto, and mutant encounters set in the Civil rights movement/the Vietnam War.
• Simon Kinberg said that in the unwritten backstory, Bolivar Trask was part of the group responsible for attempting to assassinate the mutant American President JFK. Kinberg also said that Trask had militarian supporters in the US Government and that during the Vietnam War, any soldier with a higher than anticipated kill record would be subjected to tests by Trask Industries to determine whether they were a mutant. Those found to be a mutant were put into quarantine.
• Bryan Singer wanted Mystique's son Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) to be in the film, but he thought there were already too many characters as it was.
• Simon Kinberg stated that Gambit, Cable and Psylocke were all considered, with some actresses even auditioning for Psylocke, however, all the characters were cut due to there being so many mutants in the film already.
• In an older draft of the Days of Future Past script, there was a scene with Havok and Angel Salvadore running through the woods in an experimental attack by a Trask Sentinel. This included the first glimpse of the Sentinels for the movie. The scene had been cut before the movie was ever shot, mainly for budget reasons.
• Bryan Singer originally wanted the role of Bishop to be Cable but Rob Liefeld refused to let him use the character. He felt the character of Cable was too big and well liked to be simply killed off so quickly.[2]

Deadpool

• In an interview, writer Rhett Reese stated that Negasonic Teenage Warhead wasn't always intended to be in the film. Other X-men such as Cannonball were considered, but they eventually used Negasonic Teenage Warhead because they "liked her name better."
• There was going to be a running gag involving Wade and the other bar patrons betting money on how Amy Winehouse would die. This was cut because Winehouse actually did die sometime after the script was written, making the joke both irrelevant and possibly insensitive.
• Wyre was initially going to appear as a henchman to Ajax/Francis, but was cut primarily for budgetary reasons as his powers required complicated visual effects. Cable was considered for an appearance as well, but it was decided that he would work better in the sequel, which is said to have him as a main character.
• Early drafts of the script featured a joke where it would have been revealed that Deadpool's mask was actually a store-bought Spider-Man mask that had been turned inside out. This was presumably cut due to potential legal issues (as Spider-Man's film rights were owned by Sony and later Disney).
• Marvel characters Cannonball and Garrison Kane were deleted from subsequent rewrites of the script, with the latter specifically being omitted due to budgetary concerns over the required CGI for his cybernetic arms, and the former being omitted due to concerns he would have been a "stupid hick character."
• Bob was originally meant to be the actual Bob from HYDRA, but a combination of the film's limited budget and possible legal action from Marvel forced the writers to take out any explicit references to HYDRA.
• Taskmaster was in the script at one point, but, was cut for being too expensive, especially since Marvel still owns the rights for him.
• Throughout the film, Deadpool accuses the studio of not having enough money to pay for several elements in the movie. In fact, Fox Studios cut seven million dollars out of the film's budget at the last minute, necessitating several rewrites. Items cut from the film included a motorcycle chase between Wade and Francis, the addition of more named villains, and several action sequences. In the latter instance, the fights were scaled down by having Deadpool forget to bring his ammo and gun bags.
• There was going to be a sequel hook revealing that Ajax was actually just a puppet working for Doctor Killebrew, the real mastermind behind the experiments that mutated Wade.
• Patch originally appeared in the script as a bartender, and would have been strangled to death by Wyre when Ajax and his men stormed the bar. His role was ultimately given to Weasel.
• At one point a cameo by Wolverine was scripted.

X-Men: Apocalypse

• Originally Apocalypse was to be a space entity as in the comics, but Bryan Singer found the religious aspect of the character more interesting and removed the space element from the film.
• Dazzler was planned to make an appearance in the movie, according to writer Simon Kinberg. However, she is not in the final film.
• "There were a lot of iterations of how Wolverine would enter and exit the movie," writer/producer Simon Kinberg told CinemaBlend. "There was a version when he was going to come in at the midpoint of the film and be like the drill sergeant for the kids and take over as their leader. We felt like that stepped on Jen's role in the movie and becoming their leader."

Logan

• Although not filmed, originally in the script the "Westchester Incident" was to actually be shown. The scene would have had Professor X having a seizure at the mansion and would have shown the deaths of the X-Men. The film's director James Mangold cut the scene out of the script, due to the fact that he felt it drew too much attention away from the main story and liked to have situation be vague and slightly mysterious. [3]
• Sabretooth was originally going to have a small role, where he helps Wolverine, X-23 and Professor X. when they arrive in Oklahoma. There was also going to be a scene where Logan encounters a kind of "Underground Railroad" for mutants which might have had a cameo from a well-known character. Both scenes were removed because the team behind the film didn't want to have an abundance of cameos or mutants in the film. [4]
• Concept art shows a few unused ideas including an advanced rebuilt Alkali Lake facilty that was supposed to be Zander Rice's base and art showing Wolverine being accompanied by a dog, meaning at some point he was supposed to have a pet. Also, the concept art shows a much more apocalyptic wasteland like environment then what was shown in the actual film.

Deadpool 2

• Black Tom Cassidy was the main antagonist in some early drafts of the script but, he was cut due to the writers feeling the film was already full of villains.
• When Tim Miller was still attached there were potential plans for the Fantastic 4 to show up in the film, replacing the X-Men as the ones who help defeat the villain. [5]
• Director David Leitch wanted to show more of Cable's backstory including reference to his parents but this was scrapped to time constraints, and due to the fact that he and the writers couldn’t figure out how to organically fit it into the movie.[6]

Dark Phoenix

• The original script written shortly after the release of X-Men: Apocalypse was intended to be a two part movie. However, due to the negative reception of Apocalypse and the upcoming Disney merger, during pre production Fox ordered it to be condensed into one film.
• Psylocke was apart of the original scripts.
• The Hellfire Club were involved in the story at some point.
• Lilandra was also in the scripts at one point, playing an antagonist role before joining the X-Men.
• The aliens were originally the Skrulls not the D'Bari.
• The ending had Jean going into space and blowing up Skrull ships however, this was deemed too close to the ending of the film Captain Marvel.
• Jubilee would have appeared but Lana Condor was filming another movie at the time.
• Sunfire, Mimic, Rogue, Mastermind, and the Shi’ar were all going to appear in the original scripts.

Skrull Concept Art

Jean going into space

Jean going into space

Harry Leland

Friedrich von Roehm v1

Friedrich von Roehm v2

Von Strucker Twins v1

Von Strucker Twins v2

Shinobi Shaw v1

Shinobi Shaw v2

Emma Frost v1

Emma Frost v2

Red Lotus Gang

The New Mutants

• Jon Hamm was cast as the villain Mister Sinister but due to change in re-shoots, Hamm was removed and Antonio Banderas was cast in the villain role.