Demoted To Extra / Live-Action Films

• The character of Pete, the largely silent and essentially background droog in A Clockwork Orange, played quite a pivotal role in the last chapter of Anthony Burgess's original novel. However, since Kubrick's adaptation was based on a version of the book with the final chapter excised, Pete's role was rendered largely inconsequential.
• A literal example. Isabelle Fuhrman had been cast in a small role in After Earth, but in the finished film, she is reduced to a split-second non-speaking appearance (when Kitai is told he is not being advanced).
• Zooey Deschanel's character gives the impression that there were a lot more scenes with her that didn't make the final cut of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The section of the film with her in it was originally supposed to be an hour longer.
• The Boogeyman (2023): In the short story the film was based on, Lester Billings was the main protagonist. Here, he's a supporting character who dies early on.
• Death, who's the book's narrator, only has a few voiceovers through the film of The Book Thief (the beginning, the end, and a few Time Skips).
• The Bravados: In the book, Sanchez leads the pursuit of the escaped prisoners and arguably does more to kill or recapture them than Douglas, The Hero. In the film, Sanchez is fairly prominent before the jailbreak but is badly wounded during it and can't accompany the posse.
• The French played a substantial role in the Crimean War, contributing more troops than the British and taking part in all of the war's major battles. You wouldn't know it from The Charge of the Light Brigade, where they're barely mentioned.
• Scottie had a somewhat larger role in the novel (she confronts Troy at the club, and has several moments of acting out by hurting herself) than in the film of The Descendants.
• LAPD officer Sergeant Al Powell is a big part of Die Hard, but none of the other films take place in Los Angeles. The second film offers him a gratuitous cameo, and the rest leave him out all together. Possibly justified in that Al had a family and was working the beat again by the second movie, so he wouldn't have been able to join John for more adventures. Not to mention that one series he was starring in at the time.
• The Expendables:
  • In order to accommodate the larger roles of Willis and Schwarzenegger, and the additional roles for Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Nan Yu and Liam Hemsworth, a lot of the returning Expendables got the shaft in the first sequel. In particular, Yin Yang after the first ten minutes due to Jet Li filming another movie in China and Toll Road barely has any lines in the entire film. Yang made up for it by giving us Jet Li's specialty before he left: a One-Man Army Good Old Fisticuffs beatdown for a good five minutes.
  • This also occurs in the third film, as a result of Doc, Galgo, the new Expendables, Trench, Drummer and Yang all taking part in the final battle. Hale is nearly killed during the second mission and incapacitated until the last scene, while Toll Road and several others get next-to-no dialogue for most of the film.
  • In the fourth film, Barney has a smaller role due to him being presumed dead after his plane was shot down by Rahmat during the battle in Libya.
• Caroline's role in The Exterminator II was greatly reduced from the original script.
• In the sixth installment of The Fast and the Furious series, Mia's role is downgraded so she can look after her and Brian's son. She only makes a few appearances early on and then isn't involved again until the climax when Owen Shaw takes her hostage.
• Godzilla:
  • An adaptational case with Emiko Yamane. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956), her role is significantly downplayed whereas in the original film, she's the reason why Godzilla is dead. In context, the original film has her devastated by the destruction of Tokyo and being surrounded by orphans that she went out of her way to reveal the Oxygen Destroyer. And Serizawa, by his own admission, chose to use it after seeing the destruction Godzilla caused. The recut downplayed this by having Ogata and Emiko tell Martin of the Oxygen Destroyer, and Ogata and Serizawa did most of the talking.
  • Invasion of Astro-Monster: Once Godzilla and Rodan "defeats" King Ghidorah, they don't appear until the final act of the film. Even King Ghidorah's role was reduced to show how much of a "threat" he is to the Xilians.
  • Varan. After starring in his own film, he had a few, extremely brief, appearances in Destroy All Monsters equalling about ten seconds total, and has not appeared in a movie since.^note He was originally intended to star in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, but was replaced by Ghidorah due to Executive Meddling (because Toho wanted to play it safer with a more popular kaiju).
• Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) was the main character of Halloween, but only has about 10 minutes of screen time in the sequel, despite sharing top billing with Donald Pleasance. Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers) also only appears in two scenes, despite his larger role in the previous film. He still receives third billing. Likewise, Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes)'s major role in the first film was reduced to a mere cameo in the second ( as a dead body). The rest of the franchise was filled with several cases of Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome.
• Rico and Oliver, major characters in the television show, were reduced to a few lines at the beginning of the Hannah Montana movie.
• Harry Potter:
  • Percy Weasley. He wasn't all that big a player in the books, usually being involved in the side-plots, but his estrangement from his family was a poignant reminder of what Dumbledore always said about Voldemort's gift for dividing loyalties. After the third movie, his only appearances consist of non-speaking cameos in Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows Part 2. Unless you watch the backgrounds, you wouldn't even notice he's there and is apparently still going through his book plotline, albeit almost entirely off-screen.
  • Kingsley Shacklebolt and Phineas Black's portrait play larger roles and have more screentime in the book version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix than they do in the movie version.
  • Mundungus Fletcher had a few minor roles in the books, but was completely ignored in the films until Deathly Hallows Part 1, when he was required for the plot. Resulted in a bit of a shoehorning. Kreacher likewise had his role downplayed greatly, and since his introduction, got barely a cameo in Deathly Hallows Part 1. Both were still little more than extras for much of the series anyway, but it's even more egregious in the films.
  • The Dursleys get this after Prisoner of Azkaban. Their role in Order of the Phoenix is drastically cut, their appearance in Deathly Hallows Part 1 is essentially a cameo, and they don't appear in the other films at all.
  • Draco Malfoy is a far less prominent character in the movies than he is in the books, with only a little over half an hour’s worth of screen time.
  • Zacharias Smith frequently butts heads with Harry in OoTP and is strongly characterized as an insulting and rude character. In the movie however, he only has about one line and is never seen doing anything other than being a background member of Dumbledore's Army.
• Although they are some of the most prominent characters in the ride, taking up two vignettes, the Hitchhiking Ghosts only appear in a brief cameo in the 2003 film of The Haunted Mansion.
• A Real-life example with The Help. Despite the marketing of the film being built around Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer got all the recognition for the movie, leaving Stone in the dust.
• The Hobbit:
  • In the "Appendices", Dáin played a major role in the Battle of Azanulbizar; the Iron Hills Dwarves turned the tide of the battle, and Dáin himself killed Azog to avenge his father. Dáin's role was scaled and the decision was made to keep Azog alive in the movie trilogy.
  • Bilbo himself. The first two films center around his involvement in helping the Dwarves of Erebor reclaim the mountain from Smaug. Once Smaug is killed in Battle of the Five Armies, he gets a few scenes here and there, but much of the film is centered on the eponymous battle and Thorin's inner struggles.
  • Smaug in the third film. Justified in that he gets killed by Bard about twelve minutes into the film, and only reappears in flashback sequences.
• While Amy was one of the main characters in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, in the sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid she only appears at the very beginning before taking off for college. The reason was the film wasn't originally supposed to be a sequel to HISTK. When the movie became a success, it was quickly reworked into one, but the original treatment didn't have roles for either Nick or Amy to fit into. Although Nick ultimately managed to still get a decent part, there really wasn't any room for her.
• The Hunger Games: Many characters have smaller roles in the movies than in the books.
  • District 4 isn't even mentioned as a Career district, and the girl is simply killed in the Cornucopia instead of joining the Career "pack".
  • Venia, Octavia, and Flavius. They show up, but their names aren't mentioned and they only have a brief appearance. They have a bit more to do in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
  • Greasy Sae doesn't have as much of a role. However, she gives Katniss the Mockingjay pin, instead of Madge.
  • Portia. While never that major of a character, in the film she is only seen in the background, with no lines.
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire:
    • Not that Cray has major role in the book, but the film reduces his appearance to a single scene.
    • While Blight never really was important to the story, his onscreen appearance in the film is only in the interviews, and later in a passing mention by Johanna.
    • Ceelia and Woof. Katniss never talks to them in the training center, nor are they mentioned when Haymitch introduces the tributes to them or the bloodbath, only being seen at the interviews and the tribute parade in the film.
    • Seeder is only in one scene in the film, and she doesn't inform Katniss about Rue's family.
  • Lavinia. In both films. In the first film, she shows up in a single scene in the background. Happens again in Catching Fire, where she is wearing a face mask and white clothing behind Peeta.◊
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
    • Johanna only appears for a few seconds, having spent the movie being tortured in the Capitol off-screen. Fittingly, her part in the book wasn't really expanded on until the events that take place in the chapters associated with Part 2. Promotional material and videos seemed to indicate it was going to undergo Adaptation Expansion but it was ultimately kept just like in the books.
    • Finnick. Most of his character moments are cut or passed on to others (the "kiss you, kill you, or be you" line was originally his, not Effie's), and his big moment of plot relevance, when he tells the story of his own forced prostitution and Snow's rise to power, is massively downplayed. While it was a huge character-defining moment in the book, causing Katniss to completely rethink her opinion of Finnick and was given the full focus of the narrative, in the movie, it's going on in the background as Katniss and the camera focus on the rebels' mission.
    • In terms of going from the book to the film, Plutarch's role is slightly downplayed due to the death of his actor - some scenes where he delivered important lines were re-shuffled to other characters.
    • Averted with Effie, for whom this trope was true in the book (she appeared in only one scene near the end), but who still plays a major part in the movies.
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2:
    • Effie Trinket, while having substantial roles in the previous films, appears mainly at the denouement in this film and also has a brief cameo during Finnick and Annie's wedding ^note Effie is more of a supporting character in the books and doesn't sympathize with Katniss and Peeta that much. However, the filmmakers upgraded her to a main character in the films, hence why her sparse appearance in this is quite jarring.
    • Caesar Flickerman shows up for about two and a half minutes, compared to his large appearance in the previous films. However, that's still better than in the book, where he doesn't appear at all.
    • Johanna as well, due to a large portion involving her and Katniss training getting cut, leaving little else for her to do.
• To many fans' chagrin, this occurred to Penny and Brain in Inspector Gadget (1999). Instead of being in the forefront of the film to help solve to crimes at hand like they were in the cartoon series, both were more or less seen in the background and barely given any lines while the titular inspector and a new character in the form of Gadget's love interest, Brenda, are the heroes of the film and get most of the dialogue.
• The Mysterious Man (the Baker's father) played a large part in Act One of Into the Woods, but only appears twice in the movie.
• James Bond:
  • Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) lost considerable screentime from Dr. No to From Russia with Love. In the former she actually introduced the iconic The Name Is Bond, James Bond trope for Bond to use during a scene at The Casino, then went to Bond's room to seduce him. In the latter, she's merely having a romantic picnic with Bond that's cut short by his hierarchy calling him for his new mission.
  • Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss) has only a very short scene in Licence to Kill compared to The Living Daylights. What's worse, she doesn't interact with Bond in it, she simply calls to send Q to help Bond in Isthmus.
• Most of the animal characters in The Jungle Book, while the movie focus more on Mowgli's interaction with other humans.
• Jeri Ryan originally had a supporting role in The Kid as one of Russ' clients, and there would have been a minor Romantic Plot Tumor later in the film involving her character, where she starts hitting on Russ, and making Amy jealous. In the final cut however, Ryan's role was obliterated completely, and now she only has a small cameo on Russ' television being interviewed.
• Lantana, based on the play Speaking in Tongues, reduces the roles of Neil Toohey and Sarah Phelan. The former only appears briefly as the unnamed jogger who Leon runs into and again towards the end (unlike Neil, he is not Driven to Suicide but actually gets one of the happier endings). Sarah is replaced by a gay male character named Patrick Phelan, who does have scenes with Valerie adapted from the play but is ultimately a Red Herring for both Valerie's disappearance and for her husband's infidelity (in contrast to Sarah, who was having an affair with John).
• The Last Airbender naturally has this by virtue of trying to condense twenty episodes into two hours.
  • Momo shows up long enough to be introduced, then occasionally shows up in the background a couple times. You could be forgiven for not believing him to have followed Aang after the introduction.
  • Appa was also demoted. He doesn't get a lot of screen time and is more of a mode of transportation than an actual character.
  • Katara and Sokka. Neither of them get many scenes in the spotlight, nor do anything of much importance, compared to their TV show counterparts. It doesn't help that many of Katara's strong scenes are either given to Aang or cut entirely. At least Sokka gets his girlfriend.
  • Jet, a major charcter in the show, is the small boy Zuko calls over to regale the story of the banished prince.
  • There's also Avatar Roku, who was a major player in the Avatar's quest in the show. In the movie, with the exception of a brief mention, he's completely removed and his mentor role to Aang is handled by a dragon...for some reason.
• The 1929 film of The Letter starts off with some establishing scenes in which Hammond, Leslie's lover, receives the letter and goes to Leslie's house. He breaks up with her, and she shoots him. The 1940 film deletes these scenes and opens with Leslie emptying a revolver into Hammond. In this version the actor playing Hammond does not have any dialogue.
• Hakan and the alcoholics in Let the Right One In have significantly reduced roles in the film adaptation. They are removed entirely from the American version.
• The Little Rascals:
  • Typically happened whenever a once popular cast member started to outgrow their roles.
  • Wheezer's role was reduced when Spanky McFarland and Dickie Moore were added to the cast. He is practically unnoticeable in his last episode.
  • Stymie has very little to do in his last few appearances, only getting one line in his last two episodes.
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy:
  • A big casualty of this was Éomer, who was built up to be almost a Sixth Ranger to the trio of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in the book of The Two Towers. He was offscreen for much of The Two Towers movie as his role was merged with a minor commander who leads The Cavalry rescue at the fortress of Helm's Deep. Conversely, his sister Éowyn takes the almost-Sixth Ranger role since she also goes to Helm's Deep instead of leading civilians to another fortress. Their uncle King Théoden also takes his memorable lines and moments in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
  • Also, Imrahil. In the books he's an important Gondorian commander and is the Acting Steward of Gondor while Faramir is healing. In the films he's shown a couple of times and it's not really made clear who he is.
  • Glorfindel. In the novels he helps Aragorn and the hobbits fight off some Nazgul and ends up transporting a gravely injured Frodo to Rivendell, where he is briefly considered as a member of the fellowship. In the films, his role of transporting Frodo is given to Arwen, and he appears in only a few scenes with no lines.
• Tim and Lex, now much older, only get cameos and are not mentioned again in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The Velociraptors also get presented as dangerous obstacles as opposed to main antagonists like in the previous film.
• Professor James Arnold has a much smaller role in Kingsman: The Secret Service than in the comics, in which he served as the Big Bad. The film gives his Evil Plan and main villain status to Richmond Valentine.
• Maleficent:
  • The three fairies—major characters of the original and part of the driving force of the plot—are reduced to about four or five scenes, all of which involve them being incompetent. They don't even get to soften the curse—Maleficent does that herself as a cruel Hope Spot.
  • Prince Phillip suffers this as well. In the original, he was a Badass Prince who took up the entire second half of the movie. In this film, he gets two scenes and has none of his badassery in either of them.
• Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears: Of the regulars from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Phryne, Jack and Aunt Prudence have major roles in The Movie. However, Dotty, Hugh, Bert and Cec only appear in one scene, which explains why Dotty doesn't travel to London to attend Phyrne's funeral. Cec doesn't even get any lines. Mr. Butler does not appear at all.
• In an in-universe example, this happens to a character in Mrs. Doubtfire. Early in the movie, Mr. Sprinkles is the star of a children's show. At the end of the movie, he's replaced by Mrs. Doubtfire and is demoted to Mr. Mailman, a minor character.
• MonsterVerse:
  • Skullcrawlers were the Big Bad of Kong: Skull Island. In Godzilla vs. Kong, some Skullcrawler eggs and an enormous adult Skullcrawler appear briefly, but their plot relevance is otherwise nil aside from being a Call-Back and being used as cannon fodder to show how powerful Mechagodzilla is.
  • Dr. Brooks. After being one of the main cast in Kong: Skull Island, he only makes minor appearances in the graphic novel Skull Island: The Birth of Kong and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), until Kingdom Kong once more grants him a more significant if non-action role.
  • Mark Russell was one of the main protagonists of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). In Godzilla vs. Kong, he makes only sporadic appearances throughout with no real contribution to the plot, while Madison takes up more of the protagonist role in his place.
  • Admiral William Stenz is a significant character in Godzilla (2014), as the military officer placed in charge of the Kaiju crisis once the male MUTO escapes Janjira and corresponding with Drs. Serizawa and Graham throughout the film to that extent. In King of the Monsters, he only has three or four scenes.
• Gus, the security guard's role as a Urban Explorer in Paper Towns is cut from the film adaptation leaving his role in the film to just a quick scene.
• Done purposefully by the filmmakers and fandom of the Police Story/Supercop movies (combinations of Sequel First and Market-Based Title confuse the nomenclature.) Jackie Chan was the original star but one sequel (called Supercop in North America) featured Michelle Yeoh as a supporting character. She was so popular that the next movie (Supercop 2 in North America) featured her as the star, with Chan's character appearing only in a humorous cameo.
• In the film of Queen of the Damned, Armand has two lines in total, and isn't even named as himself except by Word of God, though in the book he was a major player. Much of this is probably because Daniel Molloy was Adapted Out, and Armand's plot mostly revolved around Daniel.
• Resident Evil Film Series, based loosely off of the video game series of the same name, end up doing this to most canon characters in favor of their own. At best, they end up as sidekicks (Jill Valentine is still a semi-main character in Resident Evil: Apocalypse) and at worst, they're truly reduced to extras (Badass Normals Carlos and Nicholai each get a bridge dropped on them, in the case of the latter with absolutely no fanfare).
• In the Revenge of the Nerds films, Gilbert Lowe is a protagonist of the first movie, a supporting character in the second (he is unable to go to Florida, as he broke his leg while playing chess), makes a cameo in the third, and is entirely absent from the fourth (despite the fact that the movie is about one of his friends getting married).
• Ann Lewis from RoboCop 3. Her actress, Nancy Allen, reportedly noticed how Robocop was becoming a Cash-Cow Franchise, and thus wouldn't sign on until they promised to kill her character off.
• Rosaline: Benvolio and Mercutio get only a couple of lines apiece, unlike the original play where they have a lot of stage time due to being Romeo's close friends.
• Sandy West gets a sizeable character introduction but then does hardly anything else in The Runaways. This was enforced with Lita Ford, who refused to sign over her life story rights to the filmmakers.
• In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Kim Pine, compared to her more involved role in the books (mostly because her backstory has been moved to the [adult swim] Animated Adaptation). Envy Adams gets quite a bit cut out as well, since her fight with Ramona is cut and is compacted into Ramona's fight with Roxy Richter. She is completely absent in the climax and her role is merged with Ramona's. Richter herself gets quite a bit cut out; she almost got a complete axing when Edgar Wright considered depositing Envy into her role as Ramona's 4th ex. Nega-Scott gets the axe from playing a pivotal role in the books to being reduced to a mere punchline in the movie. Lynette Guycott although having a minor but pivotal role gets barely minutes of screen time, and her punching the highlights out of Knives' hair was designated to Todd. Finally the Twins are almost cut out entirely, as they have zero lines (their actors don't speak English), zero backstory, and probably the least screen-time of any of the exes, only seemingly being in the movie because they are exes number 5 and 6 respectively.
• In Serenity the characters of Book and Inara are set up as not living on the ship anymore. Shepherd Book is an odd example as he's only in two scenes in the entire movie (the second of which kills him off), less than any of the other main characters from the series. However, they're both really good scenes that play a major part in shaping Mal's own story arc as well as shedding some light on the film's villain, so despite his limited screentime he ends up being one of the more important characters.
• Inspector Lestrade gets hit by this in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. He may not have been one of the most central characters in the first, but he still had a decent amount of scenes and relevance to the plot. In the second movie, he is entirely left out, only briefly appearing at the end with few lines. His sergeant gets about the same amount of screentime, though he had a number of scenes in the original film as well. This is partly justified due to the Sequel Goes Foreign and most of the story took place outside of England, so Scotland Yard and its members won't be playing a large role until the plot briefly returns to it in the climax. A straighter example would be Irene Adler, who's actually one of the main characters in the first film and played a large role in the plot. She was killed minutes into the sequel by Moriarty to demonstrate that the stakes are higher.
• Almost all of Rosanna Arquette's scenes in Silverado now reside on the Columbia cuttingroom floor thus failing to explain how she goes from Emmitt to Paden in the course of the movie.
• Extra might be going a little far, but Brom's role as Ichabod's rival is massively downplayed in Sleepy Hollow (1999). He's only in a handful of scenes, not really a threat to Ichabod and Katrina, and dies halfway through.
• The fate of Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs, who went from being one of the main characters in the comic books, cartoon show and video game to showing up only in a few scenes, replaced by Gutsy Smurf as The Big Guy because he wasn't macho (or Scottish) enough.
  • The same fate also befell Gutsy in The Smurfs 2.
• In "Stand by Me," Gordie narrates, "As time went on, we saw less and less of Teddy and Vern, until eventually, they became just two more faces in the halls. It happens sometimes: friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant."
• The Star Trek films.
  • Saavik, who was a major character in The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock, made a brief appearance in only one scene in The Voyage Home, and then was never seen again. She was intended for a major role in The Undiscovered Country, but between casting difficulties and objections by Gene Roddenberry over an established character becoming a traitor, her name was simply used as a placeholder for Kim Catrall's character, Valeris.
  • Captain Klaa, one of the major antagonists from The Final Frontier (he was the one who tried to engage Captain Kirk and the Enterprise in battle when his actual mission was to rescue the Klingon ambassador being held hostage), according to Word of God, was literally demoted to extra in The Undiscovered Country. In the latter movie, he is a court translator who is not even named in the credits.^note Out-of-universe, they realised that they hired the same actor from last film and decided to Throw It In!.
• Star Wars:
  • Jar Jar Binks. Clearly set up in The Phantom Menace as a Chewbacca for the prequels, he gets only a cursory nod in Attack of the Clones and a silent appearance in a group shot in Revenge of the Sith. This was no doubt a result of fan backlash against the character.
  • In the original cut of A New Hope, Biggs Darklighter (this◊ X-wing pilot) had a much more prominent role. He's actually Luke's best friend from Tatooine who left to join the Imperial Navy, but the scenes where we learn this were deleted. In one scene, Luke meets him while on shore leave and he confesses that he's defecting to the Rebellion. In another, he and Luke get an emotional reunion before the attack on the Death Star, which makes his death in the battle a lot more tragic. The special edition restored his reunion scene with Luke, but left out the early scenes where we learn who he is.
  • Early versions of Return of the Jedi had a much larger part for the Death Star's commander, Moff Jerjerrod. In the shooting script, Jerjerrod is a high-ranking technocrat, taking orders directly from The Emperor behind Darth Vader's back. Jerjerrod butts heads with Vader over Luke Skywalker's capture and even has the guts to deny Vader passage into Emperor's Throne Room, leading Vader to strangle him near to death. Late, he reluctantly accepts orders from The Emperor to fire the Death Star on the Endor moon despite many Imperials still present there and even gives the order shortly before the station is destroyed. In the final cut, his biggest scene is greeting Vader's shuttle in the opening.
  • In The Force Awakens, Luke, the protagonist of the original trilogy, only appears in the very last scene and has no dialogue, with his disappearance being one of the key plot points.
  • Rose Tico, introduced in The Last Jedi as a fairly prominent character and even Love Interest of Finn, is reduced to a background character at best in The Rise of Skywalker and gets maybe three lines at most, zero relevance in the plot, one brief scene during the final firefight, and absolutely no mention whatsoever of her and Finn's romantic interest in one another. This was in response to her divisive at best character.
  • Finn was somewhere between protagonist and deuteragonist in The Force Awakens, being the character who largely kicks off the plot and drives most of the story. In The Last Jedi, his actions are mostly confined to a single subplot and he ends up having very little impact on the outcome of the narrative, but he still gets an arc to himself. By The Rise of Skywalker, aside from a brief scene of him meeting other deserters, he's largely irrelevant and does little more than follow the other characters around and get involved in the occasional action scene, something even John Boyega claimed to not be fond of.
• The fate of Mr. Utterson from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, due to most every adaptation centering on Jekyll from the start rather that Utterson investigating a mystery, as the novel did. In the 1920 film he pops up towards the end as one of Jekyll's friends, in the 1931 film he is an extra, and in the 1941 film he's completely omitted.
• In Street Fighter, Ryu and Ken go from co-protagonists to Those Two Guys.
• Jerry Killian is a very minor character in the book of Striptease, but his screen time in the movie is still reduced. The same happens to Joyce Mizner, who is barely there before she bites it (although Joyce is really only there as the fiancée of the man Dilbeck attacks).
• Toei's Tokusatsu Crossover film series Super Hero Taisen did this to the Super Sentai over time, giving Kamen Rider far more prominence.
  • The original film had fairly equal representation, giving prominent roles to heroes from both franchises and having all of them appear for the Final Battle in a sequence so big it actually won a Guinness World Record. Super Hero Taisen Z was still fairly balanced even with the addition of the Space Sheriffs, but the downhill slide started after this. Ironically, Z could be seen the other way around, since Kamen Rider Wizard sits out for most of the movie after declaring it "Not my problem", only to come roaring back in for the final battle.
  • The next film in the series is Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai; as the name implies, most of the focus was on the conflict between the two eras of Riders, with only the ToQgers and Kyoryu Red putting in a token cameo.
  • Likewise Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider #3, which focused more on Kamen Rider Drive (and moreso Kamen Rider #3, with only the Ninningers appearing.
  • Chou Super Hero Taisen is a little better about this, but it's still mostly a Kamen Rider Ex-Aid movie with a few cameos thrown in; the Kyurangers show up at the start, disappear for most of the movie, and then return for the final battle. On the other hand, several Sentai actors return for cameo appearances, they all help drive the plot, and Hebitsukai Silver in particular plays a major role since his status as a Tin Man lets him connect with the Emotionless Boy Victim of the Week.
• Much of the Tamara Drewe graphic novel is told from the perspective of Beth, Nicholas's wife, but in the movie she's more of a supporting character.
• John's co-workers Alix and Tanya's sideplot is omitted from Ted's final cut.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014):
  • Karai finally transitions from the comics to live-action, but her role is much less prominent than in other versions like the 2003 and 2012 shows.
  • The same is true for Baxter Stockman (also his first appearance in a live-action Turtles film).
• Jeannette, who plays a vital role in the book, appears for a split second in the boardroom at the opening of Thank You for Smoking and has no dialogue. Reitman takes the time to point her out for fans of the book during the commentary.
• Adrien Brody in The Thin Red Line. He was originally cast as the lead character and received second billing (though it was in alphabetical order except Sean Penn who was listed first) but only has a very brief and almost mute role in the released cut of the film. Brody learned about these changes from the original script at the premiere, after he'd already been doing press interviews about his lead role.
• All of the Hamiltons except for Francis have considerably smaller roles this time around in The Thompsons.
• Horseflesh had a big role in the script for Time Bandits, but his lines were removed and he's just more of a background character.
• Remember that blonde chick who dances with Fabrizio in third-class in Titanic (1997)? She was written as an opposite counterpart to Rose, a girl who finds her love interest in her class and follows her strict parents' orders without question (down to refusing to go with Fabrizio once the ship begins to sink, despite the fact that he knows the way to the lifeboats better). She's also the blonde girl who hangs on the railing before falling to her death. The film's script identifies her as Helga Dahl (a name she indeed responds to in deleted scenes). The bulk of her scenes in the movie were cut, so it's likely only the most die-hard fans will know anything about her.
• Transformers Film Series:
  • Ratchet is a major character in the first movie, but unlike Bumblebee or Ironhide, his screentime decreased massively by the second. The third film does try to give him more spotlight, however. And the fourth film brings him back only to be Killed Off for Real, in a particularly brutal fashion.
  • Megatron goes from the Big Bad in the first film to merely The Dragon in the second. He is barely on the screen for 5 minutes in the third film, and when he is, he's barely doing much until the very end. Granted, it is justified as he barely survived Prime's attack at the end of the second film, but it's still a bit of a headscratcher to not have one of the most famous bad guys of the franchise doing much more in this film. Even the small Autobots that stuck with Sam in the third film get more screentime/action than Megatron... The novelization of the film actually works this into the plot.
  • Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: Lennox and Epps had significantly smaller roles.
  • After having prominent roles in the previous two films, Sam's parents only get three scenes in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, one of which is a flashback to shortly after the second film's events.
  • Not a huge amount, but Bumblebee has reduced screentime in Transformers: Age of Extinction because Sam isn't in this film. He's still a major character, and seems to bond a little with Shane, but has no more of a role than the other Autobots sans Optimus.
• Lysander in Troy. He has just enough dialogue with Hector to indicate that most of his scenes were left on the cutting-room floor.
• Michael Corvin in Underworld: Evolution as well, as he's taken out of focus for the better part of the middle-to-latter half of the movie, when he finally pops up again to raise some hell. Though to be fair, he was technically dead for a good part of that.
• Ammonia, Nausius, and Erotica in Up Pompeii compared to the series - only Ammonia's actress (Barbara Murray) is given star billing, and even then, Nausius (as small as his role is) is the only one of the three who contributes to the plot in a meaningful way.
• Conrad Heyer, the head of The Eye, briefly appears near the beginning of V for Vendetta when Sutler's advisors are assembled, but the subplot about his wife manipulating him into trying to usurp the government is cut.
• Bud, the protagonist of Wall Street, appears in exactly one scene in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
• In Warcraft (2016), Grommash Hellscream, Kilrogg Deadeye and Kargath Bladefist are present, but mostly as visually-distinct orcs rather than actual characters they were in the adapted material.
• Went the Day Well?: Bill the poacher is the main character of the short story the film is based on but is only in three or four scenes of the movie And suffers from Death by Adaptation as well.
• Maleva in The Wolfman (2010). She had a much larger role in the original film. Although, Gwen sort of fills her shoes as the figure trying to help Lawrence with his curse this time around.

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