10 Awesome Planned Movie Cameos (That Sadly Never Happened)

It’s hard to imagine anyone else but Michael Keaton playing the lead in Birdman; not only because he’s brilliant, but because of the link between Batman and Birdman. Much was made of this connection building up to the film’s release, since the film stars an actor struggling to break free from his most iconic role.

It turns out director Alejandro Iñárritu really wanted to hammer this home in case anyone didn’t get it, as the original ending featured a more explicit real-life example. Instead of the hospital room ending it would have instead cut to Keaton’s Riggan Thomson being interviewed on TV about his brave stage performance, before cutting to another dressing room.

This room had Johnny Depp dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, and looking at his own reflection. He would have heard Sparrow’s voice asking “What the f*** are we doing here, mate?” before cutting to black, signifying the endless loop of actor’s selling out.

Since Depp likes being paid and Disney didn’t want to insult its own brand, they weren’t granted permission to do it. Shocker.