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

8. Dante - Clerks

A whole fourteen years before Marvel popularised the method, Kevin Smith's Clerks kicked off his own shared universe. Known as the Askewniverse, all of Smith's pre-Zack And Miri Make A Porno films (minus Jersey Girl) all link together, sharing a central cast of characters who pop up throughout. It could, however, have ended with one film had the originally shot ending been used. The movie we know ends with convenience store worker Dante and best bud Randal reconciling, but an alternate version continues; a man walks into the store, kills Dante and steals the money from the cash register. Coming out of nowhere and tonally polar to the conventional ending, had the film gone ahead with this finale it's likely both Clerks and Smith in general would have been very differently received. The scene was part of the film until after its first public screening, where Smith was convinced to remove it. He's subsequently admitted it only existed because he had no idea how to end his film, making Dante's death only slightly better than saying it was all a dream.