»The one and his predecessors.«

I just bought a used book that cites Larry and Andy Wachowski as the authors, of the Matrix Shooting Script.

In the opening scene When Cypher is talking to Trinity, he says "We're going to kill him you know? Just like the others"

In the poduction notes, it is stated that Cypher reveals to Neo that he had 5 predecessors. The W Bros cut that part out without explanation to anyone else.

In my mind it is of no consequence whether or not the 5 previous ones existed, were killed, or were still wandering the matrix looking for morpheus. We only need one to establish the story and we did well with or without them.

Some questions can be raised however.

If Cypher refered to them as potential "Ones", and they killed them. Who were the kids in the Oracle's livingroom? Why did she refer to them as HER kids?

What reason would there be to kill a potential "One"?

The impression that I got when Trinity, Apoch, and Switch got him in the car is that he was too valuable to let go to the other side. Switch had no problem killing Neo if she felt that he was not cooperating. Is is possible that the other potentials had to be destroyed before they realized their abilities?

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If Cypher refered to them as potential "Ones", and they killed them. Who were the kids in the Oracle's livingroom? Why did she refer to them as HER kids?

Cypher didn't say that they killed the potentials Ones. If you read the entire first script, you'll see that they died because Morpheus thought that he only had to point someone for him to be the One (because of the Oracle's prophecy saying that Morpheus would find the One).
That was a bad mistake and he realized that it was not that easy.

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What reason would there be to kill a potential "One"?

They kill people if, at the moment they contact them, they turn into Agents. They have no choice. If an Agent can take their body, then it means that they're not meant to be taken out (see the Detective Animatrix).

Don't forget that Cypher don't believe in the One, wich means that for him, Neo is another noob who's going to get killed because of Morpheus' faith.

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Switch had no problem killing Neo if she felt that he was not cooperating. Is is possible that the other potentials had to be destroyed before they realized their abilities?

Switch does not know for sure that he's the One, so maybe that he'll turn into an agent all of a sudden (don't forget that they rarely get old people out, so Neo being in the system for a very long time made of him a highly potential Agent).

She must point a gun at his head in case of. Nothing to have with their abilities.