Disney Pixar’s Onward brought the fantasy world into the 21st century—complete with smartphones, hoodies, and chain restaurants. But how would the legend of the siren song get a timely update? In this deleted scene shared by Entertainment Weekly, Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) finds himself tempted by an offer he can’t refuse—alongside a key character who was cut from the film.
It’s kind of wild that we’re already getting deleted scenes from Onward less than a month after the movie came out. But now that the film is available on VOD with an upcoming Disney+ release, we’re now seeing more behind-the-scenes specials and scenes cut from the film. Entertainment Weekly premiered this deleted storyboarded scene of Ian and a satyr encountering a trio of sirens, who weren’t tempting sailors to their death but rather coercing teenagers into buying a timeshare.
You might not recognise the person Ian is sharing a scene with, and that’s because she was cut from the movie. Originally, Ian and Barley (Chris Pratt) were going to be joined by Jenny, who worked at the chain restaurant the pair stopped at along their journey. According to director Dan Scanlon, Jenny was a fun, energetic satyr who was “super into fantasy” and decided to accompany the brothers and their half-a-dad on the rest of their quest.
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Ultimately, they removed Jenny from the film because they wanted more of a focus on the brotherly relationship, incorporating the fantasy fandom into Barley’s character. As for why they didn’t retool the scene to feature Ian and Barley coming across the timeshare-peddling sirens (apart from the fact that capitalism is a lie)? For starters, it didn’t make sense for characters to be selling a timeshare to underage kids. But also, you know, those sirens were totally trying to murder them—something they didn’t really think would be an appropriate part of the world they were building.
“These characters are out for blood and pretty much out to kill these kids,” Scanlon said. “We realised, ‘Well, that’s crazy. Why would they be out to do that?’ So, it was a lesson learned when we realised a lot of our danger had to come from situations rather than people with bad intentions.”
Onward is currently available to watch as a digital home release, and will be added to Disney+ on April 3.