10 Movie Characters You Won't Believe Were Nearly Killed Off

9. Magneto - X-Men: The Last Stand

While you can level many criticisms against Brett Ratner's dire X-Men threequel, particularly in reference to how it deals with the source material (seriously, how can you mess up the Phoenix Saga that badly), it certainly didn't shy from mixing up the status quo. Before the plot even properly gets going Cyclops and Professor X are dead and by the time the whole thing's over Jean Grey and Pyro have been added to the body count, on top of Rogue, Mystique and Magneto having their powers lost. Of course, last minute teases suggests the latter's magnetic manipulation are still present in some form and a post-credit sting kinda resurrects Xavier, but it's still a pretty large casualty list. It could have been even longer, with Ian McKellen's Magneto originally planned to bite the dust, not just be de-powered. Unused storyboards show an alternate climax set in Washington D.C. where Dark Phoenix, before being put down by Logan, disintegrates the supervillain. As the manner is quite similar, it's possible this idea was actually reincorporated into the film as Xavier's death. Ultimately it wouldn't have affected the franchise too much; Days Of Future Past wrote Ratner's film out of existence.