10 Actors Completely Cut Out Of Huge Movies

Christopher Lee's Saruman played a huge role in the first two movies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He betrayed Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) in support of Sauron, and built the Dark Lord an army of Uruk-hai 10,000 strong, the like of which had never been seen.

It was he who drove the Fellowship into the Mines of Moria where Gandalf died, and he orchestrated the Battle of Helm's Deep. However, despite essentially acting as the main antagonist of both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, with Sauron then waiting in the wings, Saruman was absent for the entirety of The Return of the King.

After his defeat at Isengard, the wizard was confined to his tower under the watchful eye of Treebeard (John Rhys-Davies), and had no further impact on the movie.

In the extended edition, audiences are given closure as they can see for themselves Saruman's death. However, this was cut out of the theatrical version due to the film's epic run time, which is something that reportedly angered Christopher Lee so much that he boycotted the premiere. He and Peter Jackson ultimately made up as Saruman made an appearance in the Hobbit trilogy, but it's easy to understand why the legendary actor was so upset.