'Zootopia' mayor was originally a woman — and a pig 

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Mayor Swinton got axed, replaced by Mayor Lionheart.

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Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY 6:54 p.m. EDT June 5, 2016

The Gerbil Jerks and other cool characters wound up getting cut out of the story of 'Zootopia,' which arrives on Blu-ray and digital HD on June 7. Disney

It's tough for a pig politician. Mayor Swinton never saw screen time in 'Zootopia,' where she was displaced by Mayor Lionheart.

Zootopia’s highest public office originally was held by a lipstick-wearing pig.

, featuring an all-animal metropolis, directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore had Mayor Swinton ruling the city.

“We found in our research that pigs are one of the most intelligent animals,” says Howard. Adds Moore: “Swinton was very urbane and intelligent, a politician of the people.”

Swinton eventually was impeached from office by the directors — overtaken by the ultimate predator, Mayor Lionheart, the blustery big cat voiced by J.K. Simmons.

But her role lives on in the extras, along with other deleted characters, on the

An early sketch of Mayor Swinton applying lipstick.

As to why Lionheart took the role from Swinton, the directors cite traditional animal law, even in a movie where predators and prey live together peacefully.

“It was like, why don’t we make the city mayor the top of what we know in the animal world?” says Moore. “The lion is the king of the jungle. And from there, we wanted to start turning the animal world on its head.”

'Zootopia' directors on passing $1 billion: 'We hope there's cake'

Swinton also was a surprise villain in the initial story draft, harboring a secret grudge against the dominant predatory mammals of

“She’s kind of soft and pink, and we thought it would be an interesting thing to have Swinton be this murderous villain,” says Howard.

Mayor Lionheart took the job as mayor in the final film.

\'s true villain went to another character. (We won\'t spoil it for those who haven\'t seen the movie yet.)

Swinton didn’t die completely. A scaled-down version of the pig showed up fleetingly as a prison warden at the end of

“With many of these characters we cut, we do recycle them,” says Moore. “And Swinton wouldn\'t be the first politician to end up in jail.”

The Gerbil Jerks were fun, but didn\'t play into the revamped story of \'Zootopia.\' They now star in an extra about deleted characters on the \'Zootopia\' Blu-ray that\'s out June 7. 

It\'s tough for a pig politician. Mayor Swinton never saw screen time in \'Zootopia,\' where she was displaced by Mayor Lionheart. 

An early sketch of Mayor Swinton applying lipstick. 

Mayor Lionheart took the job as mayor in the final film. 

The Razorbacks kept the heat on the sly fox Nick in earlier versions of the film. But when the focus changed to Judy Hopps, they had to go. 

The stealth sheep Wooly flipped the narrative by donning wolf\'s clothing. 

Fast-talking Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) was the focus of \'Zootopia\' at the start of production. But the story changed. 

Chief Bogo (voiced by Idris Elba) doesn\'t think much of his rookie cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) in \'Zootopia.\' 

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