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15 Ding-Dong Early Versions Of Movie Characters

April 11, 2021

Truly, the creative process is unpredictable … but sometimes, the places it winds through are inexplicably weird. Let us tell you about 15 movie characters that involved that kind of creative process:

15

Ariel from The Little Mermaid was supposed to be blonde. She originally looked like a Barbie doll, and only became a redhead after big fights in the studio. CRACKED COM — Source: Glamour

14

Lord of the Rings

The first version of Aragorn was a hobbit named Trotter. When Tolkien changed him to Aragorn, a lot of Trotter remained, including his actions (and a lot of his dialogue) at the Prancing Pony. CRACKED COM — Source: Google Books

13

Star Wars

Luke Skywalker could have been a girl. The original treatment was about a princess and an old man, George Lucas said. Then !I wrote her out for a while, and the second draft didn't really have any girls in it at all. I was very disturbed about that. I didn't — Source: Newsweek

12

In the early drafts of Frozen, Elsa was a villain. She wasn't Anna's sister, and she was a standard supervillain who raised an army of snow monsters. But that got changed because the team behind Frozen thought it was too derivative and unsatisfying. CRACKED COM — Source: Entertainment Weekly

11

They originally wrote Woody from Toy Story as a jerk. He'd do things like insult Slinky Dog and push Buzz out of the bedroom window, and they changed him only when they decided that a kids' movie with an unlikable main character wouldn't work. CRACKED COM — Source: Mental Floss

10

Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was written as a Black kid. Roald Dahl changed his mind about that only because his agent thought it'd be a bad idea. — Source: NPR

9

Originally, Borat was supposed to be from Moldova. And his name would have been Alexi Krickler, not Borat. CRACKED COM — Source: New Yorker

8

Oiginally, Jim Henson wanted the Muppets to be more grown-up and edgy. HE had them guest-star on variety shows, doing comedy definitely aimed at adults, and he wasn't thrilled when they offered him to put the Muppets on Sesame Street and turn them into kids' entertainment. — Source: Slate

7

Originally, Buzz Lightyear was supposed to know he's a toy. SPACE RANGER LIGHTYEAR LASERN HE was written a dumb but cheerful guy who knows what he is and he's fine with it, but Joss Whedon rewrote the script and totally changed Buzz. CRACKED COM — Source: Business Insider

6

In the earliest south Park cartoon, Cartman was called Kenny. DO It was a college short called The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus VS. Frosty, and it features a kid who looks like Cartman getting killed by a snowman while the other kids go Oh my God! Frosty killed Kenny! CRACKED COM — Source: ScreenRant

5

Frasier

Frasier's Maris was supposed to show up n-screen after the first few episodes. Instead, she never appeared on-screen, and they never cast the part. Two or three episodes in, she was already sO bizarre, she was uncastable. So we just went, 'Well, we're never going to see her, says co-creator — Source: Yahoo

4

For a while, the main character in Beverly Hills COP was supposed to be called Cobretti. He would have been a tough Italian-American cop played by Sly Stallone, who made those rewrites himself back when the studio wanted him to play the lead. But they got rid of him, and — Source: FilmSchoolRejects

3

Forrest Gump was supposed to be a big, overweight, really strong guy. Barry Sonnenfeld, the first choice for director, suggested making Forrest a runner, and the change stuck. CRACKED COM — Source: CinemaBlend

2

Originally, Lord Humungus from Mad Max 2 was going to be Max' old partner Jim Goose. They would have had the actor from the first movie play him, too, but the idea didn't survive early discussions. — Source: NFSA

1

They wrote Clyde from 1967's Bonnie and Clyde as bisexual. But this was too controversial for the '60s, so they wrote that out and made him impotent instead. CRACKED COM — Source: Boston University

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