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Originally posted by Don Lights:
Tom Hagen wouldn't be murdered by the corleone family. He's a valueable asset and also was the only person Michael fully trusted during the attempted hit on him. Tom Hagen probably was sick and died. Also I'm pretty sure Francis wanted Robert Duvall, who plays Tom Hagen to return in the role for Godfather Part III, but he wanted too much money and the studio wasn't going to pay the sum.
The absence of the Tom Hagen character is the biggest single weakness of GF III, since the question of Hagen's loyalty is rather pointedly brought up on a couple of occasions in GF II ("Can't I get a straight answer from you any more??" "I heard you got a job offer from the other hotel.. why didn't you tell me about it??"), and after seeing GF II the question in your mind is whether at some time in the future Hagen would challenge Michael for control of the family.

(IMO, rather than killing off the character, FFC should have recast Hagen if he couldn't get Duvall to take the role. Michael Moriarity would have been fine in the role of Hagen. Just as the case of Pentangeli v. Clemenza, writing the character out because the actor wouldn't come back created an unneccessary and awkward break in the plot lines.)

I've only seen GF III 3-4 times as opposed to dozens of times for the other two, but the impression I got was that the circumstances of Hagen's death were made intentionally murky, which to me raises the possiblity that Michael did have him whacked.


"You did good."