10 Unreleased Cuts Of Movies That Are Probably Terrible

It's fair to say that the first version of any movie we end up seeing is rarely exactly the one the filmmaker originally intended.

Unless you're Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg, you'll likely have to contend with studio notes and an extensive editorial review process, whereby the film will be re-shaped by test audience reactions above all else.

Director's cuts are a neat compromise, then: a subsequent home video re-release which allows the director to put their original vision out into the world without risking that ever-precious box office.

Some of them are admittedly legendarily transformative, such as Peter Jackson's extended editions of The Lord of the Rings movies, Ridley Scott's director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven, and of course, Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Yet far more unreleased cuts of movies are whispered about than ever actually get released, and while it's easy to see why fans get so excited about them, the reality is that the vast majority of them wouldn't actually make good films at all.

Whether the director simply can't be trusted to deliver on their promises, the ridiculous runtime would outstay its welcome, or there would probably be massive tonal issues, these much-discussed unreleased cuts are likely all far messier than most are expecting...

The colossal disappointment of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker not only left fans considering what could've been with Colin Trevorrow's original vision for the film, but also what better version of J.J. Abrams' movie remains locked away on a Disney server somewhere.

Since the film's release, numerous cut scenes have been discussed by the cast and crew, including sequences where Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) tortures Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Finn (John Boyega) uses the force, and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) even allegedly makes a cameo.

While Abrams himself hasn't ever confirmed the existence of a so-called Abrams Cut, there is in the very least an assembly cut of all the shot footage which would contain all of the aforementioned scenes and more.

The thing is, while these scenes sound interesting in isolation, would adding them really make The Rise of Skywalker a fundamentally better movie on a story level?

Considering the theatrical cut is already a turgid, bloated 142-minute mess, it's difficult to believe that elongating the runtime, even with admittedly attention-grabbing scenes, will do anything but make it even more of a slog to sit through.

It'd be fun to watch these cut scenes as supplementary footage on Disney+, but the one thing this movie doesn't need? More movie.