Terry Crews filmed a supporting role for 2009's Terminator Salvation, but all his scenes were eventually cut from the film, much to his annoyance. While some of his political positions have drawn ire from many, Crews is generally a pretty popular figure. A former professional football player, Crews set out to become an actor in Hollywood near the end of the 1990s, after his football retirement. Crews first got widespread notice for his work in the 2002 comedy sequel Friday After Next.
Crews would go on to be the best part of the otherwise terrible comedy White Chicks, appear in Adam Sandler's remake of The Longest Yard, play the president in Idiocracy, and star as Chris Rock's father Julius in the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Crews has since been a fixture in Sylvester Stallone's Expendables action franchise, and is currently a series regular on the beloved NBC cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Crews has had a pretty great career so far, all things considered.
Given his physical gifts and imposing appearance, Crews would seem like a natural fit for some kind of badass part in a Terminator film. Terminator Salvation almost gave him just that, but the role ended up on the cutting room floor.
Terminator Salvation: Terry Crews' Deleted Role Explained
Terry Crews' deleted role in Terminator Salvation was that of Captain Jericho, a member of John Connor's (Christian Bale) resistance army. Early on in the film, Connor leads a raid on a Skynet base, and an explosion ends up killing everyone except him. Also perishing in this event is Jericho, actually the brother of Lieutenant Barnes (played by rapper/actor Common), one of Connor's closest allies. While the role of Jericho wasn't a very meaty one, it did at least amount to an extended cameo in Terminator Salvation's opening action sequence.
Unfortunately, nearly every frame of Crews' character was cut from the film, outside of a quick shot of him as a corpse, which of course now has no context. To add insult to injury, Crews didn't find out about the change until he screened the finished film. While Crews is naturally bothered by his role being removed, he's actually slightly more annoyed by the fact that the corpse shot was left in. Crews was already famous when Terminator Salvation came out, so the actor found himself fielding questions from fans and friends about why he was a dead body and what that meant, and he had no real answer, as his character was only meant to be in the opening battle.