10 Best Movie Characters Who Only Appear In Deleted Scenes

In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the fellowship find themselves at odds with the forces of the Dark Lord, Sauron. Because Sauron is an incorporeal spirit and never directly interacts with the ensemble, his servant, Saruman the White, serves as the series' physical antagonist. Throughout the movies, the White Wizard battles Gandalf, corrupts Theoden, creates the Uruk-Hai army, and destroys countless Ents. Because of the evil he unleashed upon Middle-Earth, fans couldn't wait to see Christopher Lee's character get his comeuppance.

But in the trilogy's closing chapter, Return of the King, fans were astonished at what they saw... or more accurately, what they didn't see. Because the director, Peter Jackson, worried ROTK was too long, he cut over an hour of content, including the fellowship's confrontation with Saruman.

Christopher Lee was so devastated that his scene was axed, he didn't attend the film's premier. Jackson made it up to the esteemed actor by casting him in the prequel trilogy, The Hobbit, even though Saruman never appeared in the novel. Just to be safe, Lee jokingly asked Jackson if Saruman would actually appear in the films this time!