Never Say Never Again's Deleted Blofeld Death (& Why It Was Cut)

screenrant.com:

Here's Blofeld's deleted death in Never Say Never Again explained, and why it was removed. Never Say Never Again marked Sean Connery's last time playing James Bond in a movie, though the history behind the production is more dramatic than the final product. A feud between Connery and the producers of the Bond franchise led to his original departure, but he was later lured back by writer Kevin McClory, who help conceive of the original story for Ian Fleming's novel Thunderball. McClory — alongside Fleming and another writer named Jack Whittingham — devised the story as a screenplay, but Fleming abandoned that project and later recycled the concept for a novel.

However, he neglected to credit his co-writers, leading to a messy legal fight where McClory gained the screen rights to Thunderball. He became a producer on the 1965 movie of the same name and was granted the right to remake it after a ten-year period. It was assumed the series would have burned itself out by that point, but it was still up and running when McClory started to mount a new take on Thunderball. Connery initially came on as a writer when the project was called Warhead, but he later signed on to star. The movie also gained its tongue-in-cheek title from the actor's wife Micheline after Connery previously proclaimed he would «never» play 007 again.

Related: Why Sean Connery's Never Say Never Again Isn't A REAL James Bond Movie

McClory's rights limited him to essentially remaking Thunderball's story, with few deviations from the original structure. He also had the right to use criminal organization SPECTRE. and Blofeld, with EON being prevented from using either in the process; it wasn't until 2015's Spectre that they made an official series return.