9 Incredibly Important Movie Characters Who Were Killed Off Screen

1. Cyclops - X-Men: The Last Stand

Even casual fans of the X-Men know that, along with Wolverine, Cyclops is pretty much the de facto leader of the group and one of the most important characters in the series.

So when Scott Summers dies in the third film of the original trilogy, you'd expect it to be an epic, stupefyingly heroic moment. But no, that's not the case. In fact, it's the exact opposite; Cyclops' death couldn't be less heroic or epic if you asked your cat to write the scene with no prompting.

Distraught over the apparent death of his fiancee and teammate, Jean Grey, Cyclops walks out to Alkali Lake, where she heroically sacrificed herself at the end of the previous film. There, he comes face to face with the suddenly not-dead Jean Grey, and the two suck face for a brief, passionate moment, before Jean goes all Dark Phoenix on him and starts disintegrating him.

Cut to Professor X sensing something amiss and sending Wolverine and Storm to check on the situation, only to find Cyclops' glasses. Poof. That's all, folks. What...the...f--k? Just...why?

Apparently there was an issue with the actor portraying Cyclops, James Marsden, taking a part in Superman Returns, which you might recognise as a competing superhero movie, owned by a different studio. Basically, his character's cheap death in the first act was a petty retribution for crossing the dividing line between franchises.

Which other great characters were suddenly killed off? Share any we missed down in the comments.