History Main / DevelopmentGag

* Zauriel was introduced in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''[[Comicbook/GrantMorrisonsJLA JLA]]'' run, with Morrison originally intending to make him the new Comicbook/{{Hawkman}} after the previous iterations of the character had been declared too much of a ContinuitySnarl. While this didn't happen, there have been several nods to the original intention for the character, such as Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} mistaking Zauriel for Hawkman during their first encounter, or Zauriel later guest-starring in the ''[[Comicbook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]]'' arc that reintroduced Hawkman and claiming he thought Hawkgirl was an angel like him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'', there was a rather gross one: evidently, Beetlejuice's fingers are red because of a sexual drawing one of the animators did.

** In ''Ridonculous Race'', a pair of twins are recycled from Cameron's concept design.

** In "Breaking Ranks", Kanan and Hera go after an Imperial kyber shipment, mention of which goes all the way back to a May 1975 synopsis of an early draft of ''Film/ANewHope'' (although its own page]]. Its first actual appearance was as the MacGuffin in ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'', now referred to as "kyber crystal").

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'': Atton Rand has unlockable dialogue that plays during their first encounter referencing how he was last minute addition to the game. The dialogue only plays if there's been a dark side and light side playthrough.

** In ''Banjo-Tooie'', Captain Blackeye, a character who was supposed to be the main antagonist in the early development of ''Banjo-Kazooie'' appears in a bar, drunkenly ranting about how a bear stole all his glory and how he "Had a dream", a reference to what the game was originally called.

* The ''VideoGame/{{BioShock 2}}'' ARG "Something In The Sea" featured a character that visited Rapture then managed to return to the United States. The man then wrote a story about his experiences and submitted it to a science fiction magazine only for the editor to completely mangle the story into unrecognizability. One of the changes was turning the Little Sisters into chipmunk-like creatures, a reference to early concept art which rendered them as such.

* While designing ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', Capcom created a big white block as a simple polygon to test the game's hit detection. By the time had come for the game to go gold, the block was further defined into the protagonist of the minigame "The Tofu Survivor". ''Resident Evil 3'', built in the same engine, also has Tofu DummiedOut, while ''The Darkside Chronicles'' contains another minigame where the player runs around blasting hulks of tofu as a ShoutOut.
* One of the DLC costumes for Claire in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'' is a red-and-white riding suit based on Elza Walker, a character from an early prototype of ''[=RE2=]'' commonly referred to as "Resident Evil 1.5". While Elza would be scrapped, many aspects of her would be used for Claire, such as her backstory as a university student and motorcycle enthusiast, and her scenario prominently featuring Sherry Birkin as a supporting character.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', talking to Shale reveals she used to be 10 ft tall (like other golems) until her owner took a ''chisel'' to her and carved her down to her current size because she couldn't fit through doors. This is the exact same reason why the developers had to shrink down her original model since early playtesting saw her frequently get stuck.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', among the character Jack's many tattoos are images of several punkish-looking women. While the official art book claims they're former members of gangs she was in that were murdered, behind the scenes, they're [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VzQDCWicqsM/S2yQ0dfBBnI/AAAAAAAAANM/usM-gqmQMDE/s1600-h/ME2_MattRhodes_SubjectZero_01.jpg concept art sketches]] [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VzQDCWicqsM/S2yQ09pODkI/AAAAAAAAANU/3cmB4efNIB8/s1600-h/ME2_MattRhodes_SubjectZero_02.jpg from when Jack was being designed]].

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' there are several hints in the game files, particularly the order of character portraits, that suggest [[MagnificentBastard Alex]] was supposed to be the final party member instead of [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Piers]]. This culminates in a small chat when the party meets up with Alex after Piers joins the party, where Alex makes a subtle remark about "being replaced."

* ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'': The Order of the Stone is actually an old subtitle for what would become Minecraft, with the full title being "Minecraft: Order of the Stone"

** When Hideo Kojima asked Yoji Shinkawa to create a handsome, appealing character to serve as Raiden, Yoji Shinkawa (as a joke) submitted a design for a creepy spider-like character who moved about on dislocated limbs and 'likes to lick bird doodoo'. The joke design eventually resurfaced as The Fear in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''. Note, also, that bird droppings are prominently featured on the Strut A Roof (the introductory stage in which Raiden's face is revealed to the player for the first time).
** The motif in ''[=MGS3=]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots 4]]'' with ([[LegacyCharacter a]]) Snake appearing at The Boss's/[[GenerationXerox Big Boss]]'s grave is based partially on an unused scene concept for the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', where Snake would have visited Big Boss's restored remains. The civilian outfit designed for the scene [[RefittedForSequel was used as the basis for]] Snake's civilian outfit in ''4''.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' ending with a cover of "''Here's To You''", a song about two Italian immigrants to American wrongly executed for a crime they didn't commit, actually ties into the original ending where Snake and Otacon would be executed as terrorists by the authorities.

** An NPC living in the heroine’s hometown mentions that the events of the prequel happened two years ago, then adds, “has it really only been two years? It feels more like six.” referencing the sequel’s lengthy development time.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Webcomic/PoisonIvyGulch'': In an April 2021 story arc, Ace visits another town called Pig Iron Peak. This town name was a WorkingTitle for Poison Ivy Gulch!

*** Aeris/[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Aerith]] and Sephiroth were originally intended to have a much closer connection -- first as siblings, then as former lovers. Nothing of this remains in the story besides some striking similarities in character design - hairstyles, silhouettes, and wrist bands. (It perhaps ends up giving the impression that Cloud [[HasAType has a bit of a Type]].)

** In "Breaking Ranks", Kanan and Hera go after an Imperial kyber shipment, mention of which goes all the way back to a May 1975 synopsis of an early draft of ''Film/ANewHope'' (although its own page]]. Its first actual appearance was as the MacGuffin in ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'' and it's now spelled as [[SpellMyNameWithAnS "kyber crystal"]]).

** In "Dude, Where's My Eggman?" our good doctor runs into a criminal walrus that look very similar, and the two quickly form an egocentric friendship comparing themselves to each other. A walrus was one of the last designs among Eggman's original ConceptArt.
** In "Cabin Fever" Sonic and company partake in a sandcastle building contest. One draft of a very early internal document called the "Sonic Bible", which was created at Sega of America during the production of the original game, mentions that competing in sandcastle building contests is one of Sonic's past times.

** A more full-fledged reference to the draft serves as the premise of "White Hare", wherein Lincoln dreams about his family being rabbits. Lincoln's counterpart Warren looks identical to Bun-Bun and has 25 sisters, another major element from the draft before it was condensed to just 10.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'';
** Lincoln's stuffed rabbit doll Bun-Bun is based on his original design from when the show was going to be about a family of rabbits.
** The Season 2 episode, "Lynn-er Takes All," has a scene where Lynn tries to "compete" with Lola by brushing her teeth very quickly, which results in Lynn losing one of her teeth. This is a reference to Lynn's original design, in which she would also be missing a tooth.
** The season 3 episode "White Hare" shows the Loud Family as rabbits, with Lincoln's counterpart Warren having 25 sisters. Again, this was what Chris Savino originally had in mind for the series before Nickelodeon convinced him to make the characters human.

* Creator/MarvelComics has had several references to a character named 'Coal Tiger', which was one of several names that Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby were bandying back and forth as a possible name for the character who in mainstream continuity in the MarvelUniverse became ComicBook/BlackPanther. These include:

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'': Atton Rand has unlockable dialogue that plays during their first encounter referencing how he was last minute addition to the game,the dialogue only plays if there's been a dark side and light side playthrough.

* Blizzard games are loaded with these. One of the most memorable is a bit of audio attached to a character in ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}''; when ''Starcraft'''s alpha was first shown to the public people accused it of just being "''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' [[RecycledInSpace in space]]". Clicking on the character Artanis [[StopPokingMe repeatedly]] will eventually produce a series of exasperated [[BreakingTheFourthWall defences of the game's design]]:

* A recurrent character in the ''Franchise/MickeyMouse'' franchise is Mickey's rival, Mortimer Mouse. Disney had first considered calling Mickey "Mortimer".

* In the comments to [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/interlude-13%C2%BD-donation-bonus/#comment-3340 an Arc 13 Interlude chapter]] of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', a chapter in which Imp (a teammate of the protagonist) uses her PerceptionFilter superpower to spy upon the Slaughterhouse Nine (a band of supervillain {{Serial Killer}}s), the author mentions Imp's inspiration: [[spoiler:a member of the earliest draft of the Slaughterhouse Nine called "Nice Guy"]] whose power was to be [[TheNondescript the guy you would never suspect]], fading into the background until he could cut your throat without your even considering him a suspect. Which makes it hilarious in [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/sting-26-1/ the first chapter of Arc 26]] when [[spoiler:a [[CloningBlues resurrected]] ex-member of the Slaughterhouse Nine called "Nice Guy"]] starts using his power on the heroes (and {{Anti Villain}}s) to divert suspicion from himself in preparation to killing them, and Imp takes him out with the BondOneLiner "My schtick."

** Doc Brown's prototype flux capacitor is called a temporal field capacitor, which was the original name of the flux capacitor in early script drafts of the first ''Film/BackToTheFuture''.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

*** Sonic knocks billiard balls into their holes as he rolls around whilst entombed inside a giant snowball in Frozen Factory. Believe it or not, [[https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_Saturn there was a billiards mini-game in one of the many scrapped Sonic games from the mid-1990's, where Sonic had to act as the cue ball.]]

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E10Parallels}} Parallels]]", Riker is shown to have been the ''Enterprise'''s captain since "The Best of Both Worlds" in at least two alternate universes, which was the producers' plan when it was unclear if Creator/PatrickStewart would renew his contract after season 3.

** The two-part episode "The Menagerie" of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' features extensive footage of the (at that time yet) unaired first pilot "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E0TheCage The Cage]]". Apart from Creator/LeonardNimoy as Spock, the cast was completely different, and also the design of the sets and the uniforms differed somewhat. "The Cage"-footage cleverly was used as {{Flashback}} to an earlier point in Spock's career. The episode also established that Christopher Pike, the Captain of the ''Enterprise'' in said unaired pilot, was actually Kirk's predecessor; this detail would even go on to influence ''Film/StarTrek2009'', which portrayed Pike as Kirk's mentor.

* Franchise/{{LEGO}} ''Backlot'' has a {{cameo}} of [[Toys/{{Bionicle}} Takua]] drinking coffee and [[AnimatedActors reading the script for]] a ''BIONICLE'' movie. The script reveals his name is George, which was the early working name used for Takua in the ''Mata Nui Online Game''.

** At the end of ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' [[spoiler:Booker meets several alternate versions of Elizabeth. One of them uses the model first shown to players before she was redesigned. This early model can now been seen in the Clash in the Clouds DLC, along with a very early Handyman design that appeared in very early screenshots and the E3 2010 demo.]]
** An Enemy in the Burial at Sea DLC named Frost Splicer [[spoiler: was an incomplete enemy of the Shock Jockey-Vigor Junkie left in game files, It was repurposed for this DLC for an in-universe drink named Old Man Winter that the enemy is addicted to, that Booker and Elizabeth must fight.]]
* ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'': Angeal's design is based on an old concept idea for Cloud.

* In ''VideoGame/TimeShift'', the "Alpha Suit" worn by the main antagonist (established as the prototype of the "Beta Suit" worn by the protagonist) is based on the design of the protagonit's suit in the early steampunk inspired version of the game (which was then massively overhauled).

** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', at one point [[spoiler: Hawke]] mentions that they feared the Chantry was planning an Exalted March against Kirkwall, but it ultimately didn't happen. This was the premise of a planned but cancelled "Exalted March" expansion pack for ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', and much of the plot for said expansion pack wound up in ''Inquisition'' anyway.

* In the final version of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', at the end of the ''Wasteland Survival Guide'' questline, your character can sarcastically ask Moira Brown if, with you having done virtually all the legwork and research for the ''Guide'', Moira wants you to find a publisher, too. She cheerfully replies that won't be necessary. Guess what you had to do in one prerelease version of the questline.

*** The Piglins, the inhabitants of the Nether, are based on the old concept of Pigmen, the [=NPCs=] that were supposed to be the inhabitants of the villages, before they were ultimately replaced with the Villagers. Zombie Pigmen, mobs that are also based on that concept, were later [[{{Retcon}} retconnected]] as part of the same species under the name of Zombified Piglins.

** The {{Superboss}} of ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' is [[spoiler:'''Morpho Knight''', who, aside from its CoolSword, is actually a character that was originally designed for the cancelled Kirby Gamecube game.]]

** Way back in the early stages of the first ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'', Sub-Zero's {{code name}} was originally "Tundra." Come ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', it's revealed that the title of the younger Sub-Zero [[LegacyCharacter that took his fallen brother's place]] starting in ''[=MK2=]'' was Tundra before he took up the mantle of Sub-Zero to honor his brother.