Saints Row 4's original ending was a Bollywood dance number

One of the more ambitious ideas cut from Saints Row 4 — like the game's nixed flying, fire-breathing dragon — was a three minute Bollywood-style song and dance number planned for the end of the game, Volition creative director Steve Jaros said at Comic-Con today.

"It was on our schedule," Jaros said during today's Saints Row Super Dangerous Wub Wub Panel, "and we were trying to do it the right way," with Volition looking at choreography and "the right Bollywood song" to license. Jaros said the idea was scrapped when the Saints Row 4 motion capture team detailed the cost and complexity of adding the song and dance gag. "Time kills jokes, is what it boils down to," he said.

"The stars didn't line up," Jaros said, but assured Comic-Con attendees "the spirit of the Bollywood dance number happens [at the end] and it is poetry in motion. It is so good."

Jaros joked that "Saints Row is about the arts," adding that — through the Saints Row 4 in-game radio — enemy alien Emperor Zinyak reads monologues from Shakespeare plays and the entire first chapter of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Saints Row 4 will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC on Aug. 20.