11 Terrible Early Drafts That Almost Ruined Iconic Villains

8. The Predator €- Predator

The original design for the Predator monster is one of those nuggets of film knowledge that crops up every time a cinephile writes a pub quiz, because the man originally chosen to play the intergalactic hunter-assassin (albeit under a lot of prosthetics) was none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme, before he found fame in Bloodsport.

He didn't last though, because the original design of the beast, seen above, was deemed unsafe and clumsy, in Van Damme's words (which saw him sacked and replaced by an actor who proved just how unsafe it was by breaking his ankle. Eventually the studio conceded that the suit was "not right," which might have had something to do with just how awkward JCVD and his replacement looked inside the suit. Or it could well have had something to do with the inferior design work, which made the fearsome killing machine into something that was part goose, part horse, and all Power Rangers villain.

Either way, giant actor Kevin Peter Hall came in and made the role his own, and turned a steroid-pumped jungle actioner into the enduring brand it still is now.

The fact is, that dreadlocked, disgustingly faced monster became the brand in itself, and was enough to survive a terrible sequel and then two terrible spin-offs in the shape of the AVP monstrosities, before Robert Rodrigues saw enough in the brand to relaunch it with the unlikeliest of muscle-bound heroes in Adrien Brody.