History AbortedArc / LiveActionFilms

** Relatedly, the theatrical cut of ''Justice League'' ends with a post-credit scene where Lex Luthor speaks to Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} about forming a LegionOfDoom to take down the League. Presumably, this was meant to be expanded on in future films like Creator/BenAffleck's ''The Batman'' (which was planned to feature Deathstroke as the BigBad) and an eventual ''Justice League'' sequel. A combination of ''Justice League'' flopping at the box office, Ben Affleck exiting the DCEU (which in turn led to ''The Batman'' being completely reconfigured into an unrelated standalone movie with a new cast, script and [[Creator/MattReeves director]]) and WB shifting its strategy to focus more on standalone stories instead of a Marvel-style shared continuity seemingly killed these plans. Creator/JesseEisenberg later said in interviews that he was unlikely to reprise his role as Luthor anytime soon, pretty much confirming that WB has no further plans for the character for the foreseeable future.

** Relatedly, the theatrical cut of ''Justice League'' ends with a post-credit scene where Lex Luthor speaks to Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} about forming a LegionOfDoom to take down the League. Presumably, this was meant to be expanded on in future films like Creator/BenAffleck's ''The Batman'' (which was planned to feature Deathstroke as the BigBad) and an eventual ''Justice League'' sequel. A combination of ''Justice League'' flopping at the box office, Ben Affleck exiting the DCEU (which led to ''The Batman'' being completely reconfigured into an unrelated standalone movie with a new cast, script and [[Creator/MattReeves director]]) and WB shifting its strategy to focus more on standalone stories instead of a Marvel-style shared continuity seemingly killed these plans. Creator/JesseEisenberg later said in interviews that he was unlikely to reprise his role as Luthor anytime soon, pretty much confirming that WB has no further plans for the character for the foreseeable future.

** Relatedly, the theatrical cut of ''Justice League'' ends with a post-credit scene where Lex Luthor speaks to Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} about forming a LegionOfDoom to take down the League. Presumably, this was meant to be expanded on in future films like Creator/BenAffleck's ''The Batman'' (which was planned to feature Deathstroke as the BigBad) and an eventual ''Justice League'' sequel. A combination of ''Justice League'' flopping at the box office, Ben Affleck exiting the DCEU (which led to ''The Batman'' being completely reconfigured into an unrelated standalone movie with a new cast, script and [[Creator/MattReeves director]]) and WB shifting its strategy to focus more on standalone stories instead of a Marvel-style shared continuity seemingly killed these plans, with Creator/JesseEisenberg later saying in interviews that he was unlikely to reprise his role as Luthor anytime soon.

** The "Knightmare" scene from ''BVS'' had a premonition of a dystopian future where Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} ruled the planet (complete with his omega symbol scorched into the ground), with an evil Superman serving as his enforcer and leading an army of Parademons. Later in the movie, Batman was visited by a time-traveling [[Comicbook/TheFlash Flash]], who warned him of the evil Superman and cryptically told him that Comicbook/LoisLane was somehow "the key." The original ''Justice League'' script would've revisited the BadFuture in full, where it would've been revealed that Superman had succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation and turned evil after Darkseid murdered Lois. The few surviving members of the Justice League then would have sent the Flash back in time to warn their younger selves to protect Lois in order to prevent Superman from going bad and joining Darkseid in the first place. When that script was discarded, the whole time "Evil Superman" plot was pretty much abandoned. Darkseid never appears in the finished ''Justice League'' movie at all, and though Superman briefly fights the League due to ResurrectionSickness and has to be calmed down by Lois, it only lasts a few minutes, and the Knightmare scene never comes into play. In fact, even when Batman recruits the present day Flash as part of his team, he never mentions (or even seems to recall) his encounter with the future Flash. Likewise, even though the Parademons are prominently featured, Batman doesn't mention the fact that they appeared in his vision.

** In general, Creator/ZackSnyder had a 5-film arc planned for Superman that would've consisted of ''Man of Steel'', ''Batman v Superman'', 2 ''Justice League'' movies, and a 5th movie (although it's never been revealed what said movie would've been, some have speculated that ''Justice League'' was actually going to be a ''trilogy'' instead of 2 films), with said arc taking influence from both ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' and ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs''. However, due to a combination of ExecutiveMeddling in reaction to ''Batman v. Superman'' receiving overwhelmingly poor reviews and Snyder departing from the DCEU during the production of ''Justice League'' after his daughter committed suicide[[note]]reports vary over why he left; some say he was fired, whereas others say he stepped down voluntarily, having basically the choice between spending much needed grieving time with his family or latering his movie beyond recognition with reshoots he had no intention to make[[/note]], only 2 1/2 movies of his planned arc were produced, so it's extremely likely that any plans that he had were scrapped.

* ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' made it crystal clear that Spider-Man is definitely, without a doubt, ''the'' superhero to live up to the legacy of the [[HeroicSacrifie deceased]] ComicBook/IronMan in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. Then Spidey got ExiledFromContinuity soon after the movie's released. Talk about awkward...

** In general, Creator/ZackSnyder had a 5-film arc planned for Superman that would've consisted of ''Man of Steel'', ''Batman v Superman'', 2 ''Justice League'' movies, and a 5th movie (although it's never been revealed what said movie would've been, some have speculated that ''Justice League'' was actually going to be a ''trilogy'' instead of 2 films), with said arc taking influence from both ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' and ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs''. However, due to a combination of ExecutiveMeddling, ''Batman v. Superman'' receiving overwhelmingly poor reviews and Snyder departing from the DCEU during the production of ''Justice League'' after his daughter committed suicide[[note]]reports vary over why he left; some say he was fired, whereas others say he stepped down voluntarily[[/note]], only 2 1/2 movies of his planned arc were produced, so it's extremely likely that any plans that he had were scrapped.

* In the first two Film/{{Thor}} [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld movies]], Thor's relationship with Jane Foster is a major plot point. They fall in love in the first movie but it ends with him returning to Asgard, and the second movie starts with the two of them pining for one another, and in the end they are finally free to be together. Then come ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', they break up between movies, which is only mentioned in a halfhearted throwaway line, giving no dramatic payoff whatsoever to their romance arc.

* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' was originally supposed to be the lead-in to a 2-part ''Film/JusticeLeague'' movie, and contained a number of elements that were clearly meant to be expanded on in later movies. However, when ''BVS'' fell short of studio projections at the box office and was trashed by critics, those plans were heavily altered and the original script for the first ''Justice League'' movie was thrown out and completely rewritten from scratch. As a result of heavy retooling and [[TroubledProduction many behind the scenes issues]], the resulting movie (now a single film) ignored most of the set-up that its predecessor established. These include:

** The "Knightmare" scene from ''BVS'' had a premonition of a dystopian future where Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} ruled the planet (complete with his omega symbol scorched into the ground), with an evil Superman serving as his enforcer and leading an army of Parademons. Later in the movie, Batman was visited by a time-traveling Flash, who warned him of the evil Superman and cryptically told him that Comicbook/LoisLane was somehow "the key." The original ''Justice League'' script would've revisited the BadFuture in full, where it would've been revealed that Superman had succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation and turned evil after Darkseid murdered Lois. The few surviving members of the Justice League then would have sent the Flash back in time to warn their younger selves to protect Lois in order to prevent Superman from going bad and joining Darkseid in the first place. When that script was discarded, the whole time "Evil Superman" plot was pretty much abandoned. Darkseid never appears in the finished ''Justice League'' movie at all, and though Superman briefly fights the League due to ResurrectionSickness and has to be calmed down by Lois, it only lasts a few minutes, and the Knightmare scene never comes into play. In fact, even when Batman recruits the present day Flash as part of his team, he never mentions (or even seems to recall) his encounter with the future Flash. Likewise, even though the Parademons are prominently featured, Batman doesn't mention the fact that they appeared in his vision.

** ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' has several sequel hooks showing various inventions in Oscorp setting up future villains (Doctor Octopus' arms, Vulture's wings), and likely would have set up the planned ''Sinister Six'' movie. The series getting canned put the kabosh on all of that.

* ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' ended with the reveal that SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} had survived being decapitated, setting the character up for future appearances. The InternetBackdraft, coupled with the movie's mediocre earnings, led to the studio completely abandoning any plans for a sequel, and releasing the unrelated ''Film/TheWolverine'' and ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'' instead.

* An odd one in ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. Ripley confronts Burke about the fact that he ordered the investigation of the alien derelict ship. This should be a major plot point, as it essentially says that Burke knew that the aliens were out there and deliberately set the colonists to investigate so they could be infected, which should make him the villain of the movie and responsible for all of the evil that's happened. However, Burke offers an excuse for it that makes him come off as careless rather than deliberately villainous, and it's never mentioned again, even though it should be a major bit of information to bring up to the Marines. This is compounded because the investigation scene in question was cut from the theatrical release, so it's never explained when the colonists first encountered the aliens, and it's assumed that the aliens just coincidentally decided to show up not long after Ripley was rescued. As a result, the conversation is a bit confusing in regards to what Ripley is talking about.
** The Special Edition restored the missing scenes, removing the source of confusion.

* In ''Film/IAmLegend'', Robert Neville lays a trap that captures a female dark seeker. Shortly after, a male dark seeker goes to look, even briefly exposing himself to sunlight. Neville theorizes that the dark seekers have started to lose their remaining higher brain functions, and with them some of their basic survival instincts. However, the next day Neville is caught in a trap very similar to the one he set, hinting that the dark seekers may be more intelligent than he thinks. In the original ending, the dark seekers come to rescue the female dark seeker and spare Neville's life; due to bad test audience reactions and ExecutiveMeddling looking for a SequelHook, the ending was changed and the implication ignored. As [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16258_5-awesome-movies-ruined-by-last-minute-changes.html Cracked.com]] put it, "The original ending is available as a bonus scene on the DVD release, where it is advertised as the "controversial original ending". Yes, coming to a peaceful reconciliation with your enemies is now more controversial than blowing them right the fuck up."

* In the first two Film/{{Thor}} [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld movies]], Thor's relationship with Jane Foster k\is a significant plot point. They fall in love in the first movie but it ends with Thor returning to Asgard, and the second movie starts with the two of them pining for one another, and in the end they are finally free to be together. Then come ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', they break up between movies, which is only mentioned in a half-hearted throwaway line, giving no dramatic payoff whatsoever to their romance arc.

** The "Knightmare" scene from ''BVS'' had a premonition of a dystopian future where Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} ruled the planet (complete with his omega symbol scorched into the ground), with an evil Superman serving as his enforcer and leading an army of Parademons. Later in the movie, Batman was visited by a time-traveling Flash, who warned him of the evil Superman and cryptically told him that Comicbook/LoisLane was somehow "the key." The original ''Justice League'' script would've revisited the dystopian future in full, and where it would've been revealed that Superman had succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation and turned evil after Darkseid murdered Lois. The few surviving members of the Justice League then would have sent the Flash back in time to warn their younger selves to protect Lois in order to prevent Superman from going bad and joining Darkseid in the first place. When that script was discarded, the whole time "Evil Superman" plot was pretty much abandoned. Darkseid never appears in the finished ''Justice League'' movie at all, and though Superman briefly fights the League due to ResurrectionSickness and has to be calmed down by Lois, it only lasts a few minutes, and the Knightmare scene never comes into play. In fact, even when Batman recruits the present day Flash as part of his team, he never mentions (or even seems to recall) his encounter with the future Flash. Likewise, even though the Parademons are prominently featured, Batman doesn't mention the fact that they appeared in his vision.

** Similarly to how ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' focused on Han Solo and ''Film/TheLastJedi'' focused on Luke Skywalker, ''[[Film/StarWars9 Episode IX]]'' was supposed to have General Leia as a major character. Creator/CarrieFisher's [[AuthorExistenceFailure tragic passing in December 2016]] completely destroyed these plans, and Lucasfilm stated they wouldn't digitally recreate her likeness as they had with her and Creator/PeterCushing in ''Film/RogueOne''.

* In the 2004 Zac Snyder remake of ''Film/{{Dawn of the Dead|2004}}'', after establishing that the zombie infection is spread through contaminated blood, a 'very big deal' is made of one character washing off infected blood in a water feature in the mall. Later, a similar 'very big deal' is made of one character falling into this pool of supposedly infected water, cutting open his arm on the way in. Both shots are done with Snyder's trademark 'this is important' slo-mo, but the incident is never discussed nor followed up, and the character in question [[spoiler: does not suffer from zombie infection]].

* ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'': ''Film/StarTrek2009'' and ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' had a plotline going on about the increasing militarization of Starfleet (thanks to Nero's incursion and Klingon border skirmishes) and a looming conflict with the Klingon Empire. ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' even had Starfleet wearing Nazi-ish uniforms and was full of TheWarOnTerror parallels. Here, we get a bright, colourful standalone adventure where Scotty explicitly says "Starfleet is not a military organization," the opening scene is about diplomacy, and the main plot is a big-budget version of TOS's many "stranded on an unfamiliar planet" episodes. Furthermore, the technological advances from the last two movies (transwarp beaming, using augment blood to cure death) have [[ForgottenPhlebotinum been forgotten.]]

** The "Knightmare" scene from ''BVS'' had a premonition of a dystopian future where Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} ruled the planet (complete with his omega symbol scorched into the ground), with an evil Superman serving as his enforcer and leading an army of Parademons. Later in the movie, Batman was visited by a time-traveling Flash, who warned him of the evil Superman and cryptically told him that Comicbook/LoisLane was somehow "the key." The original script for ''Justice League'' revisited the dystopian future in full, and revealed that Superman had succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation and turned evil after Darkseid murdered Lois. The few surviving members of the Justice League then sent the Flash back in time to warn their younger selves to protect Lois at all costs, which they believed would prevent Superman from going bad and joining Darkseid in the first place. When that script was discarded, the whole time "Evil Superman" plot was pretty much abandoned. Darkseid never appears in the finished ''Justice League'' movie at all, and though Superman briefly fights the League due to ResurrectionSickness and has to be calmed down by Lois, it only lasts a few minutes, and the Knightmare scene never comes into play. In fact, even when Batman recruits the present day Flash as part of his team, he never mentions (or even seems to recall) his encounter with the future Flash. Likewise, even though the Parademons are prominently featured, Batman doesn't mention the fact that they appeared in his vision.

** The "Knightmare" scene from ''BVS'' had a premonition of a dystopian future where Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} ruled the planet (complete with his omega symbol scorched into the ground), with an evil Superman serving as his enforcer and leading an army of Parademons. Later in the movie, Batman was visited by a time-traveling Flash, who warned him of the evil Superman and cryptically told him that Comicbook/LoisLane was somehow "the key." The original script for ''Justice League'' revisited the dystopian future in full, and revealed that Superman had succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation and turned evil after Darkseid murdered Lois. The few surviving members of the Justice League then sent the Flash back in time to warn their younger selves to protect Lois at all costs, which they believed would prevent Superman from going bad and joining Darkseid in the first place. When that script was discarded, the whole time "Evil Superman" plot was pretty much abandoned. Darkseid never appears in the finished ''Justice League'' movie at all, and though Superman briefly fights the League due to ResurrectionSickness and has to be calmed down by Lois, it only lasts a few minutes, and the Knightmare scene never comes into play. In fact, even when Batman recruits the present day Flash as part of his team, he never mentions (or even seems to recall) his encounter with the future Flash. Likewise, even though the Parademons are prominently featured, Batman doesn't mention the fact that they appeared in his vision.]]

* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' was originally supposed to be the lead-in to a 2-part ''Film/JusticeLeague'' movie, but when it underperformed and was trashed by critics, those plans were heavily altered. As a result of heavy retooling and [[TroubledProduction many behind the scenes issues]], the resulting movie (now a single film) ignored most of the set-up that its predecessor established. These include:

** The "Knightmare" scene from ''BVS'' had a premonition of a dystopian future where Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} ruled the planet (complete with his omega symbol scorched into the ground), with an evil Superman serving as his enforcer and leading an army of Parademons. Later in the movie, Batman was visited by a time-traveling Flash, who warned him of the evil Superman and told him that Comicbook/LoisLane was somehow "the key" to stopping him. Back when ''Justice League'' was going to be a two-part movie, the plan was presumably to have Steppenwolf appear as the villain of Part 1 while Darkseid would be the villain of Part 2, with the evil Superman subplot explored in greater detail. When this plan was scrapped, the whole thing was pretty much abandoned. [[spoiler: Darkseid never appears in the finished ''Justice League'' movie and though Superman briefly fights the League due to ResurrectionSickness and has to be calmed down by Lois, it only lasts a few minutes, and the Knightmare scene never comes into play. In fact, even when Batman recruits the present day Flash as part of his team, he never mentions (or even seems to recall) his encounter with the future Flash. Likewise, even though the Parademons are prominently featured, Batman doesn't mention the fact that they appeared in his vision.]]

* The ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'' film builds up Sammael as an unbeatable enemy due to his [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning ability to duplicate himself every time he is killed]]. If you ''don't'' kill him then he lays eggs all over the place, which hatch into even ''more'' clones. By the end of the movie there are at least dozens of Sammael-clones and more hatching -- so, how do they deal with him? Well, a whole raft of other plot points had come up, including the BigBad and his chum, so they just set all the ones they could find on fire and called it a day. We already know from earlier in the film that KillItWithFire doesn't stop him duplicating, and they only bother looking for clones in one room of a very large underground complex halfway around the world from his last hangout. Once they leave the room, Sammael is never so much as mentioned for the remainder of the film. [[spoiler:It does however appear in TheStinger, so it wasn't forgotten.]]

** ''Film/RogueOne'' introduces Jyn Erso and the force sensitive Kyber crystal amulet given to her by her mother, who tells her to "trust in the force". Kyber crystals power lightsabers and Death Star weapons, and there usually is a link between a force sensitive character and their personal crystal. This one, however, never has any impact on the story whatsoever. It gets destroyed along with Jyn and the other characters. The end.

** In general, Creator/ZackSnyder had a 5-film arc planned for Superman that would've consisted of ''Man of Steel'', ''Batman v Superman'', 2 ''Justice League'' movies, and a 5th movie (although it's never been revealed what said movie would've been, some have speculated that ''Justice League'' was actually going to be a ''trilogy'' instead of 2 films), with said arc taking influence from both ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' and ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs''. However, due to a combination of ExecutiveMeddling and Snyder departing from the DCEU during the production of ''Justice League'' after his daughter committed suicide[[note]]reports vary over why he left; some say he was fired, whereas others say he stepped down voluntarily[[/note]], only 2 1/2 movies of his planned arc were produced, so it's extremely likely that any plans that he had were scrapped.

** A lot of plot points seem to have been dropped between ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' and ''Film/TheLastJedi'', in the former Luke is said to have gone off to go and find the origonal Jedi temple, but then in the latter he instead states that he is in self imposed exile. This doesn't quite gel with the fact that he also left a map to his location that was a major plot point of the Force Awakens. Last Jedi also goes into more depth exploring why Kylo Ren went rogue, but never once are the Knights of Ren mentioned. Finally Snoke alludes to finishing Kylo's training at the end of Force Awakens which would make sense as he has just been [[spoiler: defeated by Rey and would need to grow stronger.]] However in Last Jedi this only amounts to finding Luke Skywalker rather then any actual training and in the end [[spoiler: [[HalftheManHeUsedtoBe Snoke ends up dead]]]]