Deleted scenes on home releases of movies were almost unheard of in the days of VHS tapes due to the limited amount of space that was available and there being no easy way to access the clips without waiting until the movie was over.
It wasn’t until DVDs became popular that you started to see deleted scenes being included as extra features. These would go on to be a huge selling point of the home releases, to the point where fans would accuse movies of saving good material in order to get people to buy the DVDs.
However, there are some important pieces of footage that have yet to make their way onto home releases.
The more skeptical fans might think that they are being saved for some special edition further down the road, but there are some scenes that won’t ever officially be released, as their content is too graphic for the age rating of the movie or the director is vehemently opposed to their inclusion due to a perceived lack of quality.
We are here today to look at the deleted movie scenes that still haven’t officially been released.
From the missing conclusion to one of the most popular cartoon series of all time to the huge changes made to the Battle of Helm’s Deep, here are the 15 Deleted Movie Scenes (That Still Haven’t Been Released)!
The Lost Daughter Of Ash & Misty
There was a point in time when the Pokémon franchise was planned to end, or at least be totally overhauled from the ground up.
Pokémon Gold & Silver were originally going to be the final games in the series, with the confrontation against Red being the last epic battle of the franchise.
The unprecedented success of Pokémon across the world meant that the series would keep on going for as long as it keeps on making money, which means that it won’t be going away anytime soon.
This means that Ash Ketchum will remain a boy and keep going on adventures until we are all in old age homes.
The Pokémon anime was originally planned to end with the first movie, though these plans changed partway through development.
We know this due to footage from one of the early Japanese previews that showed how the series would have ended.
There is a preview of the first Pokémon movie that shows an adult version of Misty hanging out with a girl whom she seems to be very close with. Ash’s Pikachu is also very affectionate with the child.
This scene never appeared in the theatrical cut or any of the home releases for the first Pokémon movie, which has led many fans to believe that there was going to be a sequence showing an older Ash and Misty with their young daughter.
The scene was likely part of a planned flash-forward that would have closed out the series.
It’s Gonna Be May (The 4th)
It’s always a tricky proposition when you use members of a prominent boy band in movies or TV shows, as you risk a backlash from the audience who hated the band and won’t give the individual members a chance in something new.
The members of N*YSNC faced this several times in their career, with Lance Bass coming under fire from Final Fantasy fans when he voiced Sephiroth in the first Kingdom Hearts game.
We almost lived in a world where the members of N*SYNC traveled to a galaxy far, far away, as several members of the band filmed cameos in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.
A representative from Lucasfilm confirmed that three members of N*SYNC filmed scenes for Attack of the Clones, with only Lance Bass and Justin Timberlake unable to take part.
Joey Fatone has given more details about the filming in recent years, and has confirmed that they played some of the random Jedi Knights who fought in the Battle of Geonosis during the climax of the movie.
The only question remaining is why these scenes were cut and why they haven’t appeared on the home releases of the movie.
The most prominent rumor is that the negative fan reaction to boy band members appearing in a Star Wars movie led to the footage being shelved, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Aragorn Vs. Sauron
The fans of The Lord of the Rings novels were probably worried when the movie version of Fellowship of the Ring opened with footage of Sauron.
This is due to the fact that Sauron never actually appears in the books, which was a conscious decision on Tolkien’s part in order to keep him mysterious.
Movies are a visual medium, however, which meant that Sauron was turned into a giant armored monster who smashed his way through enemy armies with a giant hammer.
Sauron was meant to appear once more in The Lord of the Rings movies, but the idea was scrapped partway through development.
The original plan was for Sauron to appear in the form of Annatar, which was the disguise he used to infiltrate the elves in the past. Sauron would then transform into the armored form that we saw in the prologue of Fellowship of the Ring and battle Aragorn.
Sauron’s appearance in Return of the King was scrapped and his body was replaced with a CGI troll, which meant that a lot of the footage of his battle with Aragorn could be repurposed.
The reason for Sauron’s removal was explained in the Extended Editions, as the creators of the movie felt that it was too different from Tolkien’s vision.
Scraps of this footage were shown as part of the documentaries that came with the Extended Edition, though the whole scene has yet to be released.
The Original Ending Of The Shining
The endings of both the movie and novel versions of The Shining are different from each other.
The movie version of The Shining concludes with Jack Torrance losing his life when he freezes in the hedge maze, while the book version of the story ends with the boiler exploding, which results in Jack losing his life and the destruction of the Overlook Hotel.
The movie version of The Shining also ends with a shot of a photograph that shows Jack as a guest at the Overlook Hotel in the past, which raises all sorts of questions about the events of the movies.
Stanley Kubrick had originally filmed an ending that would have raised even more questions if it had been used.
The alternate ending would have shown Danny and Wendy recuperating in the hospital, where they would be visited by the manager of the Overlook Hotel.
The manager would tell Danny and Wendy that nothing out of the ordinary was found in the Overlook and would give Danny a yellow tennis ball.
There is a scene earlier in the movie where Jack is throwing a tennis ball at the wall, which occurs shortly before his rampage.
The return of the tennis ball was meant to suggest to the audience that the manager was somehow aware of or connected to the supernatural events that were occurring at the Overlook Hotel.
The Melting Scene In The Black Cauldron
The Black Cauldron was Disney’s first animated feature to receive a PG rating, which meant that it could depict more violent imagery without having to worry about losing the desired G rating that most cartoons strive for.
This gambit did not pay off, however, as The Black Cauldron failed to earn back even half of its budget, which was such a huge financial loss that it threatened to close Disney’s animation studio.
The lukewarm critical and commercial reaction to The Black Cauldron ensured that the movie would not see a home release for over a decade. This has also meant that we likely won’t ever see the scenes that were cut from the movie for being too gruesome.
There is a scene in The Black Cauldron where the Horned King’s zombie soldiers (known as the Cauldron Born) were unleashed upon some living warriors. The Cauldron Born pounce upon the humans and dissolve the flesh from their bodies in a horrifying manner.
A few animation cells of these disturbing scenes have been purchased at auctions, which have allowed for a fan edit that attempted to recreate the original scene as it may have once looked.
Draco Malfoy’s Face Turn
Draco Malfoy managed to acquire a sizable fanbase when the Harry Potter movies were first released, despite the fact that the character was utterly loathsome throughout most of his appearances.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was the point when we started to see some cracks in Draco’s villainous veneer. Draco always seemed to be on the edge of redemption, yet he was never quite able to let go of his old self.
It seems that the creators of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 had originally planned for Draco Malfoy to turn his back on the Death Eaters and aid Harry Potter during his final battle against Lord Voldemort.
The behind-the-scenes footage for Deathly Hallows: Part 2 shows clips of Draco breaking ranks during the Battle of Hogwarts.
He was originally going to return Harry’s wand to him, which may have been included as a way of clarifying the rules of wand ownership that had become so important in the final book of the series.
The reason this scene was left out may have something to do with the fact that it is a massive departure from the books, where Draco’s true nature was left more ambiguous during the final parts of the story.
The Eye Pecking Explanation
Steven Spielberg decided in the late ’80s that he wanted to dip his toe into the animation industry. He did this by creating a studio called Amblimation, which produced three animated features before closing in 1997.
The studio produced three movies during its existence, one of which was a notable box office bomb called We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story.
The scene that was cut from We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story was one that was important for explaining the motives of the villain, but it was cut due to how gruesome it was.
The villain of We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story was called Professor Screweyes, who was so named for the fact that he replaced one of his eyes with a large screw.
The missing scene involves Professor Screweys telling the story of how a berry fell on his eye when he was a boy, which caused a crow to fly down and peck it out. He would later be devoured by crows near the end of the movie.
Clips from the cut scene were included in early previews of the movie, which meant that fans have been able to cobble together a restored version of the scene, though it is still missing most of what was cut immediately after Professor Screweyes finishes his story.
Bane’s Backstory
Bane was the villain of the The Dark Knight Rises and was one of the few enemies of Batman to ever defeat him in combat, both in the comic books and the movies.
In the Batman comics, the reason why Bane is so physically strong is due to his dependence on a substance that increased his strength and durability.
The version of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises was powerful due to the fact that he underwent the same training that Batman had endured during his time with the League of Shadows, as well as the fact that he was already a strong man.
The costume designer on The Dark Knight Rises has revealed that several scenes showing the development of Bane were filmed.
We were originally going to see scenes of Bane wearing a more primitive version of the mask that he wears later in the movie, which he had assembled himself. There were also going to be scenes that showed Bane learning how to fight while battling other prisoners.
Bane was also planned to have a much more gruesome scar on his back, which was also supposed to mirror the injury that he inflicted on Batman.
The scenes of Bane’s training have yet to appear on any of the home releases of The Dark Knight Rises.
The Endings For Gimli & Legolas
One of the biggest problems with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was that a lot of the runtime was given to extended ending scenes.
A significant chunk of the movie was given to Frodo’s decision to leave Middle-earth and saying goodbye to his friends, which can feel a little overly long if you had just sat in a movie theater for over three hours.
However, not every character was worthy enough to be given an ending in Return of the King, as several members of the Fellowship weren’t given any closure if their lives weren’t directly linked to the fate of Aragorn or Frodo.
Two characters who were sorely robbed of a true ending were Gimli and Legolas. They had been some of the most popular characters in the trilogy and they had been deprived of a proper sendoff.
In the books, Gimli goes on to establish his own kingdom in the Glittering Caves beneath Helm’s Deep, while Legolas joined his people at Ithilien in an effort to help restore the woodlands that had been destroyed during the war.
The two of them would eventually travel to the Undying Lands together, with Gimli becoming the only Dwarf to ever leave Middle-Earth in this manner.
Scenes were filmed that showed Gimli and Legolas’ lives after the War of the Rings but they weren’t included on the Extended Edition of Return of the King. All we have seen are brief snippets that were shown in the documentaries that came with the movies.
The Fourth Ending Of Clue
It’s rare for a movie to shoot multiple endings. The reasons for this usually include an attempt to prevent leaks and spoilers, or due to changes demanded by the studio that are done with reshoots.
Clue was a movie that used its multiple endings as one of the reasons why you should see it several times, as you weren’t sure which one of the three endings you would get if you saw Clue in the cinema or on TV at home.
The home releases of Clue allowed for all of the endings to be made available in one place… or did it?
There is a fourth ending of Clue that has yet to be seen by the fans, though a lot of information has been released by the production staff.
The fourth ending of Clue revealed that the culprit was none other than Wadsworth the butler, who had dedicated himself to becoming the perfect assassin as part of his quest to become the best at everything.
Wadsworth would manage to escape from the police, but the final scene suggests that this will be short-lived, as he is about to be brutally taken down by a dog.
The Lost Pie Ending Of Dr. Strangelove
It’s possible for movies to be changed at the last minute due to tragic events in real-life that could make the content of the movie seem insensitive.
In the case of Dr. Strangelove, the event that forced the change was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
This forced the planned ending where the American and Russian delegates fought each other in a pie fight to be scrapped in favor of one where civilization is destroyed in a nuclear Armageddon.
Dr. Strangelove was originally going to end with a huge pie fight, as the War Room buffet table was stocked with an assortment of cream and custard desserts.
The Soviet Ambassador would attempt to throw a pie at the President, which caused the fight to break out. There was a line of dialogue spoken during this scene where General Turgidson claims that the President has been struck down in his prime.
The phrasing of this line was deemed to be too similar to the events surrounding the passing of President Kennedy, which is one of the main reasons why Columbia Pictures wanted the ending changed.
Stanley Kubrick was never fond of restoring footage or creating new edits during his lifetime, which is why the original ending of Dr. Strangelove only exists in picture form.
The Animated Battle Between Gandalf & The Balrog
The animated version of The Lord of the Rings that was created by Ralph Bakshi arrived in the cinemas unfinished, due to the sheer scope of what he was trying to accomplish.
Ralph Bakshi had intended for almost every scene in the movie to be animated using rotoscoping, which was a process by which you would film a live-action scene and use it as a reference for the animation.
The constraints of time and budget meant that many scenes weren’t completed on time and concessions had to be made, with barely any animation being created for some of the live-action footage.
One scene that suffered due to the tight schedule was the planned battle between Gandalf and the Balrog, which was shown in a few brief stills during the final version of the movie.
Bakshi had planned for the battle between the two to be animated as they ascended the Endless Stair up to Durin’s Tower, but it couldn’t be completed on time.
Ralph Bakshi has since released brief snippets of the completed footage of the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog on his Twitter page. He seems content to release pieces of these incomplete scenes for free on social media, rather than collecting them for a special edition of the movie.
Peeves The Poltergeist
Peeves the Poltergeist is the resident annoyance of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as he spent most of his time using his spectral powers to perform pranks on the students.
Peeves was one of the characters who never appeared in the movie adaptations of the Harry Potter series, which was probably due to the fact that he had few significant scenes in terms of the overall story.
There were some Peeves scenes filmed for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, where the role was performed by Rik Mayall.
Mayall is best-known in America for his role in Drop Dead Fred and for his TV roles in shows like Bottom and The Young Ones in the U.K.
It’s possible that the Peeves scenes were cut due to concerns over their quality. Rik Mayall had discussed working on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in interviews before he passed away and he talked about how the child actors had a hard time dealing with his performance without laughing.
This resulted in the scenes having to be shot with Rik and the kids needing to perform on separate sets so that it could be edited together later.
The Peeves footage has yet to appear on any home releases of the Harry Potter movies, though there is still a chance that it is being saved for some upcoming special edition once the series hits its first big anniversary.
All Dogs Go To Hell
History will remember Don Bluth as the animator who posed a legitimate threat to Disney during a period of time when their movies were failing at the box office.
The majority of us will remember him for scarring us during our childhood, with scenes like the passing of Littlefoot’s mother in The Land Before Time or when Charlie says goodbye at the end of All Dogs Go to Heaven still leaving a mark on us after all of these years.
All Dogs Go to Heaven had to undergo several cuts in order to receive a G rating in North America.
The first of these involved a scene that showed Charlie being hit by a car, which was removed due to a negative reaction at test screenings. Footage of this scene has never been revealed, as it is believed to be lost.
The other cuts belonged to the sequence where Charlie has a nightmare about being sent to Hell. There was a closeup shot of the skeletal demon on the ship that was removed, as well as an extended sequence where the canine Devil chases Charlie and tells him that “Now, you are MINE!”
The cut scenes from Charlie’s nightmare do still exist and have been shown by people associated with the movie.
A fan edit also exists that splices the scenes in with the full movie, though the quality is poor due to the cut scenes being recorded on a camera that was filming a projector.
Arwen’s War
The creators of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy seemed to flip-flop on what they wanted to do with Arwen, as they weren’t sure if they wanted to make her a warrior or a damsel.
Arwen was originally presented in Fellowship of the Ring as a martial figure and was responsible for the spell that awoke the river and broke the Nazgul.
In the book, these acts were originally performed by Glorfindel (one of the most powerful elven lords in Middle-earth) and a spell that required the combined might of Elrond (along with his Elven Ring) and Gandalf.
Arwen’s role was greatly diminished in the next two movies, as the focus shifted to her doomed love with a mortal man and her eventual marriage to Aragorn once the war had ended.
The creators of The Two Towers had originally planned for her to have a much bigger role in the movie, as she was planned to arrive at Helm’s Deep alongside the elven host and fight alongside Aragorn.
This idea was actually a holdover from an earlier version of the script, as the producers were struggling to think of a way to keep her relevant to the story.
It’s unclear if all of Arwen’s scenes at Helm’s Deep were finished before the story was changed, but clips were included in the documentaries that came with the Extended Edition of The Two Towers, so there is still a chance that whatever footage was completed may return in a future release of the movie.
Can you think of any other scenes from movies that have never been leaked? Sound off in the comments!