History Main / ExtremelyLengthyCreation

** The Prequel Trilogy was something Creator/GeorgeLucas had hoped to do as early as the filming of the original ''Film/StarWars'' in 1976, and which was set in stone when ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' was designated "Episode V". It wasn't until ''Film/JurassicPark'' debuted in 1993 that he started writing the prequels, as he felt CGI special effects would be able to achieve the kinds of visuals he wanted to depict. The first of these three films, ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', debuted in 1999, 22 years after ''Film/ANewHope''.
** The Sequel Trilogy also counts: Lucas had ideas for it at the same time as the prequels (each trilogy would be about a generation of Skywalkers), although some of these were eventually folded into ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' [[note]]Including Luke becoming a Jedi, discovering his sister, and confronting the Emperor[[/note]]. By the 1990s, Lucas had shelved the idea of making them, as he was merely curious about what the sequels would be like, as well as his advancing age (and by 2012 he was frustrated with people saying how terrible he was due to the prequels). In the end he started early work on a sequel trilogy in 2012, which was crystallized by his sale of Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} to Creator/{{Disney}}. Disney announced the sequel trilogy that would begin with ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' that would debut in 2015, 38 years after ''Film/StarWars''. While the sequels diverged greatly from Lucas' ideas, they still included several of his ideas in some fashion.[[note]]This includes following the next Skywalker generation, Han Solo no longer being alive, Leia being trained as a Jedi by Luke, Luke continuing his life alone, and a pair of Force users confronting the Emperor.[[/note]]

* Music/DavidBowie: Bowie wanted to "redo" his much-maligned and [[CreatorBacklash personally loathed]] ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' ever since the supporting tour for it wrapped up in 1987, but the idea was put on hold for over three decades. Reeves Gabrels encouraged him to hold off on the idea in '87 because it had been too soon since the original album released, and a second attempt at a redo in 1996 never got past the planning phase. Eventually, Bowie hand-picked several musicians for the project shortly before his death in 2016, and they put together a RemixAlbum two years later that replaced almost all the instrumental tracks with ones more in line with Bowie's original intention for a RevisitingTheRoots album.

* ''Wish Upon a Blackstar'' by Music/{{Celldweller}}: Production began in 2005; the full album was finally released in 2012.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie'' (which was meant to be the series' GrandFinale) began production in 1998 and had been partially animated in 2001. A MadeForTVMovie called ''Arnold Saves the Neighborhood'' was developed alongside it. However, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} expected the film to be a hit after the two ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' movies took off and gave it a theatrical release in 2002 under the title ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie''. ''The Movie'' did horribly and both critics and audiences responded negatively to it. ''The Jungle Movie'' was then cancelled and the series ended with [[{{Cliffhanger}} two big unresolved plot points]][[note]]The answer to the whereabouts of Arnold's long lost parents and Arnold's response to Helga's AnguishedDeclarationOfLove[[/note]]. In 2009, fans of the series began [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow petitioning for the film to resume production]] and the series gained a new surge in popularity once it began airing as part of Creator/TeenNick's ''The '90s are All That'' block on Creator/TeenNick in TheNewTens. In an attempt to WinBackTheCrowd and cash-in on 90s nostalgia, Bartlett confirmed in late 2015 that ''The Jungle Movie'' would resume production. The film ultimately premiered simultaneously on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}, Nicktoons, and [[Creator/NickRewind NickSplat]] on November 24, 2017.

** The sequels went the same way, to the point ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'' will come out [[SequelGap thirteen years after the original]]. In the meantime, another pet project of Cameron, ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'', had to be handed over to Creator/RobertRodriguez.

* ''Fanfic/{{Paradoxus}} (''WesternAnimation/WinxClub, VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''): This fanfic has been in the works for nearly a decade -- since 2014, as well as the subject of a few retoolings, a couple of {{Drawing Board Hiatus}}es, and a MidDevelopmentGenreShift. Not counting all of the "WhatCouldHaveBeen" it has accumulated over time.

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Fan Films]]

[[AC:Film -- Animated]]

[[AC:Film -- Live-Action]]

* The remake of ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' was originally announced back in 2008, but Type-Moon wouldn't begin serious development until 2012 upon the completion of ''VisualNovel/MahouTsukaiNoYoru''. But then in 2013 they were side-tracked with the development of ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', which, alongside the general explosion of the ''Franchise/{{Fate|Series}}'' series, left them with minimal resources to focus on the remake. It was only around 2017 that general development towards a sellable product was restarted, and even then, the scope of the product was so large that its contents were to be {{divided|ForAdaptation}} up, with the first part only coming out in 2021, 13 years since the original announcement, with the second part being announced with no date.

* ''VideoGame/Mother3'' took over 12 years to make. Work started on it as soon as ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' released in Japan in 1994. Originally planned as a UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem game, it was soon moved to the Nintendo 64 as the SNES was nearing the end of its life. Specifically, the game was planned to release on the Nintendo 64DD add-on, which itself faced several delays and flopped in sales after its eventually release in 1999, and was never released outside of Japan. This led to the game being further delayed so it could be released on a standard [=N64=] cartridge, but the team's inexperience with the then-new technology of 3D graphics (and the absence of [[SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming Genius Programmer]] Creator/SatoruIwata) caused development to progress slowly even before the DD failed, and the game was ultimately cancelled in 2000 when it became clear it was not going to be done while the [=N64=] was still relevant. The project remained dormant for a few years until Nintendo decided to try again on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, where sprite-based graphics would hopefully result in a less overambitious project; even then, it didn’t release until 2006, the very end of the [=GBA’s=] life, which was a major factor in why it [[NoExportForYou never came out outside of Japan]].

A series that is just incredibly long-running is a {{Long Runner|s}}. See also SequelGap, which may involve either this or the creator just taking a long time to be inspired to do a sequel.

* ''Anime/REDLINE'' was in production for a total of 7 years. This is mainly because studio Madhouse went all in on the animation and artsyle, even doing most of it handdrawn. In the final product its clear that their efforts paid off, though unfortunately it didn't fair well at the box office

* Creator/JamesCameron started to work on the film that would eventually become ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' almost right after ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' was finished. Unfortunately, because he kept waiting for the technology to catch up to his vision, people started to place it on lists of "movies that will never be made."
** The sequels went the same way, to the point ''Avatar 2'' will come out [[SequelGap thirteen years after the original]]. In the meantime, another pet project of Cameron, ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'', had to be inherited by Creator/RobertRodriguez.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' is one of the most infamous examples from video games. Originally announced at Sony's E3 2006 conference, it was originally titled ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'' and was set to be part of a trilogy that consisted of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', ''Final Fantasy Agito XIII'' (later renamed to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0''), and ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'', collectively named ''Fabula Nova Crystallis'' and set to be released exclusively for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3. However, news on the game was scarce for more than half a decade aside from trailers being shown in 2008 and 2011, largely due to issues in making the Crystal Tools Engine and the need to take the team away to finish ''Final Fantasy XIII''. The game eventually managed to start production in late 2009 and managed to release its first major gameplay trailers behind closed doors before it's first big trailer in early 2011. However, the failure of ''Final Fantasy XIV 1.0'' forced the team down from 200 to around 20 in an attempt to help save the game, leading them to combine the Type-0 team with the remaining team. In 2012, the game ended being reannounced to the world as ''Final Fantasy XV'', this time as a MultiPlatform game for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 UsefulNotes/XboxOne. Another major hit happened when the game's director was replaced, the new director decided to completely cut out what had already been done and the game basically started over from scratch in early 2014. It eventually released in 2016, albeit in a clearly rushed and incomplete state. This sparked debate on whether it lived up to the decade of development and years of hype, but it was commercially a success and sparked a NewbieBoom for the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' is one of the most infamous examples from video games. Originally announced at Sony's E3 2006 conference, it was originally titled ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'' and was set to be part of a trilogy that consisted of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', ''Final Fantasy Agito XIII'' (later renamed to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0''), and ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'', collectively named ''Fabula Nova Crystallis'' and set to be released exclusively for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3. However, news on the game was scarce for more than half a decade aside from trailers being shown in 2008 and 2011, and the game hadn't even exited the preproduction phase by the time of the latter year. In 2013, after undergoing a change in directors and been heavily reworked, the game ended being reannounced to the world as ''Final Fantasy XV'', this time as a MultiPlatform game for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and PC, with the intent to release it in 2016 at the latest, a deadline it was able to meet. Whether it lived up to the decade of development and years of hype still remains a debate among fans, but it was commercially a success and sparked a NewbieBoom for the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise.

* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin began ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' in 1991 and is still writing it. The first three installments came out rapidly beginning in 1996, but once he hit plot snares while writing the fourth installment, each subsequent book has taken about five years to be released.

As a general rule, this trope covers anything that took more than ten years to write or make, or that involved some truly labyrinthine process, or simply because of DevelopmentHell. While a publicized work is trapped in an Extremely Lengthy Creation, it is often comes to be considered VaporWare. Occasionally, this can be a very good thing, as having a long time to think about your creation can result in a worthy masterpiece. However, spending too long on something can result in a work that is completely overwrought and filled with flaws that you don't notice because you have spent so long looking at whatever it is that you become blind to your own mistakes and used to your PurpleProse and alliterative grammar.

* '''Normal Examples''': This category is for examples of works that took a long time to complete relative to the medium used. For example, if it is a book, up to five years is relatively average for a first novel and one-two years for anything after that. As a general rule, anything over six years for a novel and ten years for a door-stopper should be listed. If the book was planned in advance to, say, document a long period of time, it doesn't count unless it over-runs significantly.

* ''Manga/{{Bastard}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie'' (which was meant to be the series' GrandFinale) began production in 1998 and had been partially animated in 2001. A MadeForTVMovie called ''Arnold Saves the Neighborhood'' was developed alongside it. However, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} expected the film to be a hit after the two ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' movies took off and gave it a theatrical release in 2002 under the title ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie''. ''The Movie'' did horribly and both critics and audiences responded negatively to it. ''The Jungle Movie'' was then cancelled and the series ended with [[{{Cliffhanger}} two big unresolved plot points]][[note]]The answer to the whereabouts of Arnold's long lost parents and Arnold's response to Helga's AnguishedDeclarationOfLove[[/note]]. In 2009, fans of the series began [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow petitioning for the film to resume production]] and the series gained a new surge in popularity once it began airing as part of ''Series/The90sAreAllThat'' block on Creator/TeenNick in TheNewTens. In an attempt to WinBackTheCrowd and cash-in on 90s nostalgia, Bartlett confirmed in late 2015 that ''The Jungle Movie'' would resume production. The film ultimately premiered simultaneously on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}, Nicktoons, and [[Creator/The90sAreAllThat NickSplat]] on November 24, 2017.

* Music/BrianWilson's album ''Music/{{Smile|TheBeachBoys}}'': Production started in 1966 while Wilson was with Music/TheBeachBoys, the album was finally released in 2004.

* Music/BrianWilson's album ''Music/{{SMiLE}}'': Production started in 1966 while Wilson was with Music/TheBeachBoys, the album was finally released in 2004.

* [[https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=29058 The Shmups Forum post]] announcing ''VideoGame/ZeroRanger'' was posted in 2009, and the devs explained that they had been working on it for "a while" already at the time. The game was finally released in 2018, ''nine years'' later.