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Why Shane Black cut this actor from the final cut of 'The Predator'


Plenty of actors can share with you stories of their appearances in films completely cut from the final product, and now Edward James Olmos has his own to tell.

The actor, best known for his roles in Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica, was cast as a four-star general in The Predator but director Shane Black decided to cut all of his scenes.

This wasn’t because Olmos delivered a bad performance but because the film was already too long and they needed to find ways to shorten the final run-time.

Edward James Olmos famously appeared in Blade Runner
Edward James Olmos famously appeared in Blade Runner

“It was too long so my character, they had to take me out,” the actor explained to SlashFilm while promoting his FX TV show Mayans, MC. “They were like half an hour, 3/4 of an hour too long. So I understand why.”

There have been five other Predator movies in the franchise and all of them have come in under two hours in length so it’s likely that Black was aiming for the same with his movie.

The Predator is a sequel to Predator 2 and stars Jacob Tremblay, Olivia Munn, Boyd Holcroft and Sterling K. Brown as they face off once more against these alien invaders and a new hybrid foe.

The Predator features hybrid monsters
The Predator features hybrid monsters

Here’s the official synopsis:

From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black’s explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.

The Predator is released in cinemas on September 13

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