Saruman, while becoming less relevant after the end of Two Towers, was one of the primary antagonists, and a key player in the battle for Middle Earth. Thus you’d think his death would be reasonably important, right? Well, it never made the original edit, but thankfully we got to see Saruman’s (and Gríma Wormtongue’s) fate in the extended version! Instead, we got the sequence of Steve just hitting the punchbag in the gym, which, while portraying his frustration, didn’t touch on his uncomfortable out-of-place feeling like this scene did. Also, we were robbed of a classic Stan Lee cameo, who cajoles Steve into getting the waiter’s number. Finally, it also explains why, during the battle, we keep seeing this waiter seemingly for no reason. But this scene would have been a callback for this character, and it would have made a bit more sense. In the scene, Dudley says that he doesn’t believe Harry is a waste of space and asks why he isn’t coming with them. This short scene shows us how Dudley has changed over the years and has now developed a respect for Harry that started when Harry saved him from the dementors. It may not have great relevance to the plot, it may add eight minutes to the running time with zero dialogue, but it would have been totally worth it. Well, in a short deleted scene we got that answer. The scene shows Luke talking with Yoda, and Yoda says to Luke, “Obi-Wan would have told you long ago had I let him.” While it doesn’t alter things drastically, we at least would have gotten to the bottom of that particular question. While it doesn’t add too much to the plot, the primary thing we get from it is Doctor Strange’s guilt – something that we don’t really see otherwise, because he, unlike anyone else, had seen Tony’s death before and had to let it unfold. Well, Bridesmaids had it all at their fingertips, and let it go. TBF, the scenes take up some time and don’t really have much to do with the main plot so I get why they got cut, but seriously, I feel like we were kinda robbed. Luckily the deleted scenes were released so we got to see them in all their glory! Some fans thought it should have stayed in, saying “Why wasn’t this in the movie?!?” While others were glad it was removed, suggesting that it would have undermined the character’s personality: “Miranda’s character was already softened compared to the book. This would have been a total departure on every conceivable level. Whichever side you stand on, this scene undoubtedly would have been quite the curveball! For some reason, seeing Jake’s life before Pandora, and how contrasting it is to the paradise he ends up in really grounds his character, and puts his new life into perspective. In the deleted scene we get an idea of Jake’s nature that acts as the basis for his character development once we get to Pandora. The subplot, with Sibylla’s discovery that her son had contracted leprosy, and her decision to euthanize him was lost in the cutting of 17 minutes that Ridley would regret afterwards. On the decision to cut those scenes, he said this: “Because people are saying ‘The film’s long, why do you need this part,’ and how wrong they were.” The scenes show Sibylla in a whole different light and give us a greater understanding of her actions later on in the movie. The scene shows Loki and Thor together and is probably the most brotherly exchange the two have in the entire movie (and subsequent others). It may have been cut in order to make Loki more villainous in the movie itself, but it also would have laid the foundations for the redemption arc that Loki has in later films, as it does show him having a far closer relationship with his brother than we’d seen before. Well, a deleted scene offered a plausible explanation for this apparent plot whole. The scene shows David inspecting the crashed ship in area 51 and realising that the ship’s programming language was similar to the signal that they’d detected and deciphered towards the start of the invasion. The scene tells us that David knows how the ships were programmed, and thus was able to upload the virus to the connected ships without being directly connected to the mothership. In the deleted scene, Regina and Cady are shown in the bathroom before the dance, where Cady apologises, and Regina forgives her. It’s a nice scene, especially as it sort of sets up the speech Cady makes at the dance. Rigbey opens up, saying how she’d promised to be home for her 11th birthday. Knowing what she went through gives more depth to RIgbey’s character, and may suggest why she gets so close to Newt and feels protective over her. This scene added more fuel to the replicant vs human debate because later, in the movie, Deckard’s partner, Gaff, leaves a small origami unicorn for him to find. This suggests that Gaff knows what Deckard has been daydreaming about and that Deckard is, indeed a replicant. The scene reveals Scar, who has taken over after getting Simba to flee, talking about his desire to get a wife, and that he will choose Nala to be his queen. It’s honestly kinda disturbing, and they probs got this one right, but it DOES explain why Nala is exiled, as her rejection of Scar’s advances must have led to her being exiled. We then see John and Sarah, with the Terminator’s help, going into his brain and removing the chip themselves. This has particular significance for later in the movie, where the Terminator shows empathy – something he couldn’t have without John and Sarah changing the chip in his head.
