Reiner also made a memorable appearance as con man Saul Bloom in the Ocean’s trilogy. Which is why some fans probably wondered why director Gary Ross didn’t include the legend in Ocean’s 11.

In the continuation of Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean franchise, Debbie (Sandra Bullock) is the sister of master thief Danny Ocean (George Clooney). Debbie and her partner, Lou (Cate Blanchett) put together a team of female hustlers to pull off their latest heist. With the odds stacked against them, Debbie and her team planned to steal jewels during the iconic Met Gala event.

In the Ocean’s series, Reiner played a curmudgeonly but loyal con artist. Though Saul was happily retired, the idea of a big heist always drew him back in. In the initial stages, Saul was supposed to return in the female-led spinoff, much like Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) and Yen (Shaobo Qin).

About two years ago, Ross explained to The Hollywood Reporter why Matt Damon and Reiner’s cameos ended up on the cutting room floor even though the actors were gracious enough to come and film their scenes. Ross though didn’t feel the appearances of Saul and Linus Caldwell (Damon) served the story.

“Picking the cameos is an eclectic process of: how does it fit in the story and how is the narrative unfolding? This more than any movie I’ve done had a really copious editorial process where you play with stuff, you find stuff,” said the Ocean’s 8 director. “I’ve never shot anything after I’ve wrapped on any other movie before, but in a heist movie and an ensemble movie, you’re still working on the play. And we did a bunch of that, and so that was satisfying as well.”

Ross added, “There were a lot of people who were gracious to us that just for editorial and storytelling reasons didn’t make it in and some who did. If you know, we ended up shooting probably another 10 days afterwards, so there’s a lot of material and a lot of shaping. But it really just comes to storytelling.”

About three years ago, Reiner confirmed to Vanity Fair that he had filmed his cameo appearance for the heist flick. The Man with Two Brains comedian had filmed a “little scene” with Bullock. He described the Speed actress as a “work of nature.”

He mentioned, “Yeah, Ocean’s Eight, I think they’re calling it. And I got to work with my favorite actress, Sandra Bullock. I did one little scene with her, and it was such a pleasure. She’s a work of nature.”