10 Movie Characters Killed In Reshoots
These characters met an unexpected end during post-production.
Reshoots are often seen as a dirty word among moviegoers, but if you know much about the film industry you'll appreciate that they're essentially baked into every blockbuster schedule these days, and rarely mean a production is doomed in and of itself.
A lot can change in reshoots after a film has been shown to ever-nebulous test audiences, whose feedback will decide whether or not the film needs re-edits or new material shot.
Reshoots have saved countless movies and characters over the years, but they've also been used to kill off characters who were originally intended to survive.
These 10 movie characters, whether hero or villain, were all written to survive in the original script and made it through principal photography in one piece, only to be killed off in post-production.
The possible reasons are endless: perhaps test audiences just straight-up hated the character and wished them dead, maybe the movie needed another death scene to spice things up a little, or the actor's unavailability for reshoots caused them to be killed off-screen.
In some cases it was definitely a good call, while in others it was absolutely a mistake to kill these great characters...
10. Dr. Susan McCallister - Deep Blue Sea
During the original shoot of classic shark B-movie Deep Blue Sea, apparent protagonist Dr. Susan McCallister (Saffron Burrows) made it to the end alive, but when Warner Bros. test-screened the film they discovered a surprising reaction they hadn't accounted for.
As it turns out, test audiences absolutely loathed Susan, seeing her as chiefly responsible for the genetically engineered sharks running amok throughout the underwater research facility.
These audiences desperately wanted to see Susan pay for her runaway ambition in the most ultimate way. According to director Renny Harlin, one of the test screening feedback forms simply said of Susan, "Kill the b*tch!"
And so a brief reshoot was conducted in which Susan is brutally devoured by a shark.
Harlin also claims that he cut some of Susan's more sympathetic moments throughout the film to make her seem even more icy and ensure her death was even more cathartic for the audience.
It's a genuinely shocking moment, honestly, and oh so satisfying.