 Leone originally intended to reunite the three stars of  _Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)_ (qv)  (Clint Eastwood (qv), Lee Van Cleef (qv) and Eli Wallach (qv))  in cameo roles as the three gunmen waiting for Harmonica at the  start of the film, but when Eastwood was unavailable the idea was  scrapped.