History WhatCouldHaveBeen / FILM

** Nute Gunray's demise was somewhat different in the original screenplay. In a desperate attempt to kill Vader, Gunray would've summoned a group of droidekas to open fire on him as he was killing the other Separatist leaders. When the smoke cleared, Vader was presumably killed...only for him to appear from the roof and destroy the droidekas before beheading Gunray. This explains why Gunray flinched in shock when Vader lunged at him; he had thought the droids had killed him.
** A scene of Wat Tambor getting impaled by Vader at Mustafar was filmed, but cut for being too violent (though the final film had Tambor visibly hiding in the conference room). Two stills from the scene were used in promotional material.
** In the original script, Palpatine would've been revealed to have used the Force to push the midi-chlorians to begin the creation of Anakin (meaning, in other words, Anakin was part of Palpatine's plans ''since his birth''). The conversation between him and Anakin at the theater would've ended with him saying "You could say that [[LukeIAmYourFather I'm]] [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack your]] [[CallForward father]]."
** Anakin was going to sport [[TotallyRadical a mohawk and a tattoo]], an idea that Lucas quickly vetoed. Another idea was for him to have long hair with a ponytail; Lucas vetoed that as well.

** R4-P17, Obi-Wan's astromech droid, was originally going to be destroyed during the execution scene at the Geonosian arena. The droid also was supposed to possess an actual body, whereas in the finished film, R4 is just a stationary head built into the ship.

** Music/TupacShakur was eager to recieve a part in the film...[[AuthorExistenceFailure but that didn't work out]].

** Creator/BenicioDelToro was originally cast for Darth Maul, but del Toro quit when he found out he would get few speaking lines. del Toro would later portray DJ in ''Film/TheLastJedi''.

** Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio was at one point attached to play Anakin in ''Clones'', but (depending on which story you believe) he either backed out after reading the script or was let go by Lucas after he spilled the beans about his casting during an interview with a media outlet.

** Michael Angarano, Crator/HaleyJoelOsment, Cameron Finley and Justin Berfield auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker.

** Creator/ReneRusso was initially cast for Chase Meridian while Creator/MichaelKeaton was still attached to play, but Creator/NicoleKidman was cast instead after Keaton left and Val Kilmer took over. It was felt that Russo would be a little "too old" to act alongside Creator/ValKilmer.
** Creator/RobinWright, Creator/LindaHamilton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Creator/SandraBullock, and Creator/CindyCrawford were also looked at to portray Chase Meridian.

** Schumacher did have discussions with Michael Keaton in returning as Batman, but Keaton chose not to participate because he didn't like the LighterAndSofter direction of the film.

** Creator/KaneHoder was looked at for Bane.

** William Baldwin, Creator/EthanHawke, Creator/DanielDayLewis, Creator/RalphFiennes, Creator/JohnnyDepp, Creator/AlecBaldwin (again), Creator/KeeanuReeves and Creator/TomHanks were all looked at to play Bruce Wayne/Batman.

** Had Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger passed on playing Mister Freeze , Schumacher's second choice was Creator/SylvesterStallone. His third choice? Wrestling/HulkHogan.

** Creator/RobinWilliams was Tim Burton's first choice to play the Riddler. However, after Burton was removed from the director's chair, the executives passed on Williams in favor of Creator/JimCarrey. [[Music/TheMonkees Micky Dolenz]] had also been considered early on.

** Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio was also in consideration to play Robin, but lost out to O'Donnell.

** Creator/DustinHoffman had expressed interest in playing the Penguin; it was Creator/JackNicholson who suggested to Burton that he cast Creator/DannyDeVito, whom Nicholson had recently worked with on ''Film/{{Hoffa}}''.

* And there's [[TheOtherMarty Eric Stoltz]], who was hired to play Marty, and actually filmed scenes for a month or so before the producers reluctantly decided he just wasn't working in the role and they had to fire him. A deal was struck with the producers of ''Series/FamilyTies'', and Creator/MichaelJFox was brought in (who had been the original choice, but the show had meant he wasn't available).

** With Stoltz, Thomas Wilson was cast as Biff; J.J. Cohen was the original actor considered, but wasn't imposing enough compared to Stoltz. He ended up as Skinhead, one of Biff's goons.

* A deleted scene shows Buford Tannen killing Sheriff Strickland in front of his son. It got cut not only because it was depressing, but also because [[MoralEventHorizon it was so despicable]] that [[KarmaHoudini it wasn't right that Buford not die]], and he ''can't'' because he has to live long enough to extend the Tannen family line (though why they couldn't have resolved this by simply establishing that he had already fathered a child is unclear). This is why Tannen is arrested in the end by Strickland's deputy and not Strickland himself, with the line "You're under arrest for the murder of Marshall Strickland" redubbed to "You're under arrest for robbing the Pine City Stage".

* ''Film/Batman1989''

* ''Film/BatmanReturns''

** Annette Bening was originally cast as Catwoman, but had to drop out of production due to her pregnancy.
** Creator/DustinHoffman had expressed interest in playing the Penguin; it was Jack Nicholson who suggested to Burton that he cast Creator/DannyDeVito, whom Nicholson had recently worked with on ''Hoffa''.

** ''Batman Returns'' originally included a montage of the sons of Gotham's wealthiest families being kidnapped for the Penguin's mass murder plot, with one of the little boys screaming. Tim Burton, who knew that many children would be going to see the movie, decided not to take any unnecessary risks and just showed the boys ''after'' their kidnappings, being locked in the cages of a circus train.

* ''Film/BatmanForever''

** Creator/BillyDeeWilliams was again set to play Two-Face, but was bought out of his contract and replaced with Creator/TommyLeeJones. A similar deal happened with Marlon Wayans, who was paid off so they could cast Chris O' Donnell in the role.

* ''Film/BatmanAndRobin''

** The first proposed script was called "Tears of the Sun", which the director and Willis apparently hated. Willis repurposed the name "Tears of the Sun" for another project he would eventually star in.

** Jessica Simpson auditioned for the role of Lucy. Justin Timberlake expressed interest in the (scrapped) role of Jack. Think about that for a second.

** Robert Evans, the producer, initially demanded that Coppola deliver a 135 minute cut. Coppola, who'd edited the film to more-or-less the extant version, begrudgingly complied, only to be [[{{Hypocrite}} chewed out by Evans for "ruining the film."]]

* After Creator/RichardHarris died, Creator/IanMcKellen was approached to play Dumbledore. He turned it down, having already filled his quota of bearded wizards from books being made into big budget films. Instead, the fans get treated to [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation somewhat different]] performances by Michael Gambon.

* The character of Peeves was originally going to be included in [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone the first film]]. Creator/RikMayall of ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' was cast and apparently went as far as filming scenes before the character was cut. None of the footage - if it exists - has ever been shown. The story is rather complicated and involves two more cases of What Could Have Been. Apparently, Chris Columbus and David Heyman hated the design of Peeves and basically filmed the scene with him knowing that it wouldn't be in the theatrical release, but planning to go back and "fix" it for a future special edition to be released in 2002 or 2003. Columbus was planning to introduce an all-CGI Peeves in ''Chamber'' and presumably this would have been the Peeves he was planning to go back and insert into the first film. Then Peeves didn't make the second film either and it seems they just gave up after that.

* ''Film/DrNo'': Before Joseph Wiseman was cast, Creator/ChristopherLee (also a cousin of Bond creator Ian Fleming) was considered to play the titular villain. Lee would play the villain Francisco Scaramanga in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''.

* ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'' had big problems early on in production when star Creator/PeterSellers was bent on playing Bond straight (as early drafts of the script showed a story as gritty and down-to-earth as the later reboot, but when producer Charles Feldman couldn't cast Sean Connery, he opted to make it a farce). Sellers' continued erratic behavior had him leave in mid-production. What remained of his work had him playing an anonymous ordinary guy hired to play 007, and seeming to lose himself in the role (an interesting reflection of Sellers' own existence) and actually followed the original novel somewhat. The movie in its entirety became a stitched-together string of self-indulgent lunacy, and Sellers' career went into a steep decline, only salvaged late in his brief life.

* In the 90's, Kevin [=McClory=] (who claimed to have co-written ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'' and ended up getting ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' made because of that) wanted to launch his own separate series of Bond films, beginning with "Warhead 2000 AD" which could have starred Creator/LiamNeeson as Bond.

** Music/{{Blondie}} was originally approached to perform the theme song to ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', but when they submitted their song it was refused in favor of one written by Bill Conti and Michael Leeson, and the band withdrew from the project. Their song later appeared in their 1982 album ''The Hunter''.

** Creator/TobeyMaguire and Creator/ShiaLaBeouf were contacted to play Will Rodman before James Franco was cast.

* If Steve Guttenberg had agreed to appear in ''Assignment Miami Beach'', Mahoney would have been [[spoiler: promoted to Lieutenant along with Hightower]] at the end of the film.

** A scene of Wat Tambor getting impaled by Vader at Mustafar was filmed, but cut for being too violent. Two stills from the scene were used in promotional material.

** Creator/AlecBaldwin, Creator/PierceBrosnan, Creator/TomSelleck, Creator/MelGibson, Creator/KurtRussell and even Creator/CharlieSheen were all said to have been considered for the role of Batman at one point or another, but Creator/TimBurton insisted on casting Creator/MichaelKeaton. When the film was still in a purely comedic frame, Creator/BillMurray was said to be the studio's choice for Batman.
** Had the producers been unwilling to give in to Creator/JackNicholson's excessive contractual demands, Burton's second choice for the Joker was Creator/TimCurry. Creator/WillemDafoe was also said to have been a candidate for the part of the Joker, which became HilariousInHindsight when he went on to play the Green Goblin in ''Film/SpiderMan''.

** Creator/SeanYoung was originally cast as Vicki, but she broke her arm after falling off a horse and had to drop out, leading to Creator/KimBasinger taking her place. Young then tried unsuccessfully to land the role of Catwoman in ''Batman Returns'', with unfortunate results for her career.

* In what is easily [[TearJerker the saddest example]] in of the franchise, General Leia was confirmed by Lucasfilm to have a large part in the unfilmed Episode IX, which the [[AuthorExistenceFailure untimely passing]] of Creator/CarrieFisher has all but rendered impossible.

* The plan was originally for the final battle to take place at Kashyyk (the Wookie homeworld) and have the wookies be the ones who fight the Empire.

** Lois Chiles was originally cast as Agent XXX/Major Anya Amasova in ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', but pulled out and was replaced with Barbara Bach. Chiles would later go on to play Holly Goodhead in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', but this time ''she'' was a replacement for the initially cast Carole Bouquet, who also had to pull out, but was later cast as Melina Havelock in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''.
** Maria Grazia Cucinotta was the first choice for Elektra King in ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', but her English was not up to par, and so the role was given to Sophie Marceau. As a consolation prize, she was given the small but memorable role of the Cigar Girl assassin.

[[folder: ''Godzilla'' Series]]
* Bagan. Just Bagan. [[EnsembleDarkhorse Where do you begin with him]]?:
** His concept first appeared in an early version of ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla'', which would have him fight Godzilla as THREE monsters that could shape-shift individually and would merge together at the film's climax.
** The scrapped ''Mothra vs. Bagan'' movie gave Bagan his recognizable appearance and the plot of it sounded EXTREMELY similar to that of ''Film/RebirthOfMothra''. In this scrapped idea, Bagan could FLY.
** ''Godzilla vs. Bagan'', a film that was to based on the video game, ''VideoGame/SuperGodzilla''. It was going to feature [[Film/{{Atragon}} Gotengo]] and even Godzilla turning into SUPER GODZILLA!
*** On a side note, the basic design for Super Godzilla was recycled as Spacegodzilla.
** Bagan was also considered for the video game, ''[[VideoGame/GodzillaDestroyAllMonstersMelee Godzilla: Unleashed]]''. However, he was replaced by Varan in the planning phase [[CharacterFocus due to Simon Strange preferring Varan over Bagan, simply for Varan's design]].
* Before the ''Film/Godzilla1998'' film, a 1994 ''Script/{{Godzilla|1994}}'' film was planned:
** The film was originally going to have Godzilla fight against a giant monster named the Gryphon and have special effects done by none other than Creator/StanWinston Studios (some models of the Gryphon, and its minions called Probe Bats were even constructed). The concept of the Gryphon has some What Could Have Beens of its own:
*** A lie that has been circulating was that the reason the Gryphon never manifested was because Toho veto'd the idea, and proposed Mothra and King Ghidorah instead. Both were turned down because their rights were extremely expensive. The real reason was actually worse.
*** The real season is that Sony’s [[ExecutiveMeddling executives disagreed about the budget]] and caused the would be director Jan De Bont to drop out. There were several attempts to re-negotiate, and get a director, Tri-Star brought in Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The condition they agreed to direct was that they would rewrite the entire thing however they wanted, and we [[InNameOnly all know how that went.]] The even sadder irony is that the budget went way over the budget Sony didn’t agree on, meaning that the whole screw up was really meaningless.
*** The Gryphon started out as a monster with the features of a cougar, cow and bat; and Godzilla's origins would be that he was a bioweapon made by an ancient civilization to fight off the Gryphon. Gryphon ended up becoming an alien creature that would have used the DNA of [[PantheraAwesome cougars]], [[CoolHorse horses]] and [[GoddamnedBats bats]] (as well as ''[[ReptilesAreAbhorrent snakes for its tongues]]'') to construct a body for itself, killed the script's main villain and ultimately was killed by Godzilla after giving him hell in battle. Compare this script, ''Script/Godzilla1994'', to the final film, ''Film/Godzilla1998'', which was far, ''far'' less cool.
* ''Film/Godzilla1998'':
** The film was going to be much closer in feel to the Creator/{{Toho}} versions, but it clashed too harshly with the director's imagining of the lizard in a more realistic light (for instance, Godzilla looked and moved more like his Toho counterpart, but he looked too much like a [[PeopleInRubberSuits man in a rubber suit]] and broke the suspension of disbelief the director was going for). Some concept art exists of this Godzilla using atomic breath, but in the film proper he did not because of this.
** Additionally, the film was originally going to be given a sequel as well. It involved Nick [[FluffyTamer raising and nurturing the Baby Godzilla (from the ending) into being in adult]], who in turn lays a litter of his own babies. All while trying to balance out know to protect Godzilla and his babies from the world and vice versa, while a swarm of insectoid monsters begin attacking. The concept of Nuck raising Baby Godzilla became the basis for the animated series following the movie, which was MUCH better received due to being closer to the original films.
* ''Film/{{Gunhed}}'' was originally written as a Godzilla movie!
* Originally, Shusuke Kaneko, the director of ''Film/GodzillaMothraKingGhidorahGiantMonstersAllOutAttack'' wanted to use Varan and Anguirus for the movie. However, the [[ExecutiveMeddling executives at Toho made him use Mothra and Ghidorah instead since they were more popular monsters]], and Toho was playing it safe after ''Film/GodzillaVsMegaguirus'' received mediocore reviews. Baragon was the only monster that was kept due to his popularity in Japan, but it did mean King Ghidorah and Mothra seemed unusually weaker than they usually were, since their roles were originally written for Varan and Anguirus respectively. Anguirus was also going to be known as the "golden freezing monster" and had ice breath to complement Baragon's fire breath (which he ended up not having in the final film) and Varan's flying abilities. The ship that finished off Godzilla at the end was also going to be the ''[[Film/{{Atragon}} Gotengo]]'' rather than the ''Satsuma''.
** Additionally, Kaneko's other ideas for a Godzilla film included him fighting a mutated astronaut known as "M" and a separate one where he fights Kamacuras as Kaneko wanted to experiment with a completely CGI version of the giant mantis.
* Originally King Ghidorah was supposed to be crimson before he was designed as golden, and some photos of ''Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster'' in production exist where he is blue with rainbow-coloured wings, which is also the version on the poster.
* There were supposedly plans for a King Ghidorah solo film in the 1990s, but it was scrapped in favour of him featuring as an antagonist in ''Film/RebirthOfMothra''.
* One idea for a ''Godzilla'' film in the 1990s was to have Godzilla fight a ghost version of [[Film/{{Gojira}} the 1954 Godzilla]]. The idea was to have the '54 Godzilla win and was also slated to feature Godzilla Junior and Anguirus ([[http://i.imgur.com/4L0Ia.png concept art was even commissioned to try and design a "Heisei series version" of the character]]). However, since Godzilla already fought against two Godzilla-like monsters ([[Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzillaII Mechagodzilla]] and [[Film/GodzillaVsSpaceGodzilla Spacegodzilla]]) Toho decided to use the Oxygen Destroyer concept instead to bring the franchise full circle, and thus ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah'' was created.
** Worth noting that the image on the left in the commission art link isn't Anguirus but rather a different monster called "Barubaroi". [[http://s4.zetaboards.com/KaijuGalaxy/topic/9702581/1/ Barubaroi was yet another monster made to fight Godzilla in his own film]] (Anguirus again was apparently set to appear as well as Junior).
** Another version developed in the conceptualization of ''Godzilla vs Destoroyah'' was ''Godzilla vs. Giant Monster Varan'', and as the name implies, the final enemy of the Heisei series was going to be '''Varan''', as the "herald of the apocalypse".
** An early script of ''Godzilla vs Destoroyah'' involved a mecha known as G-END constructed from the remnants of Moguera from the previous film, ''Film/GodzillaVsSpacegodzilla'', but Toho decided against it since it would have meant three movies in a row featuring mechs, which they thought was excessive.
** Another idea made during the conceptualization of Godzilla vs Barubaroi (which became ''Godzilla vs Destoroyah'') was that Godzilla would fight a genetically engineered cybernetic humanoid with a human face and skin made of Godzilla cells known as the "Biomonster", and the two monsters would perform a MutualKill. There were many other ideas as well, including one where Godzilla fought his son, one where he fought "deep-sea life", and one where he fought "Super Atomic Godzilla".
** Originally, Destoroyah was going to fire a powerful "stomach beam" from the floral pattern on his chest, something seen in concept art, kept in the manga adaptation (where it sliced off the end of Godzilla's tail and one of his dorsal plates), and filmed (where it was strong enough to knock Godzilla over with one shot), but scrapped in post-production.
** Destoroyah's death was also longer and more violent, as he would have survived the JSDF's ice tanks, but is then grabbed by Godzilla as he starts melting down, and rendered flightless by his shredded wings, Godzilla would have [[TakingYouWithMe taken his son's killer to the grave with him]], the extreme heat from the meltdown along with the ice tanks still blasting at the two monsters causes Destoroyah to dissolve into nothing. This ending scene was scrapped because it took the focus away from Godzilla's death, although the manga adaptation kept it.
* Franchise/{{Frankenstein}} has quite a history with Godzilla for several what-if ideas:
** "''King Kong vs Frankenstein''" was the kicker but the idea as Universal owned the rights to Frankenstein's Monster, instead the matchup shifted to Kong fighting a character named "''[[CaptainErsatz Prometheus]]''" but again went nowhere. Ultimately once Willis O'Brien and John Beck got a hold of Toho with the idea, ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' was born.
** Toho was also interested in using Frankenstein for a potential "''Frankenstein vs. Godzilla''" movie, but work on ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'' eventually caused the idea to be split into two separate projects: ''Film/FrankensteinConquersTheWorld'' and ''Film/MothraVsGodzilla''.
* Film/KingKongVsGodzilla's success also had a few ideas that didn't come to fruition due to Rights costs or other reasons.
** A direct sequel called ''Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla'' was announced but never evolved past the proposal stage.
** You remember ''[[Film/EbirahHorrorOfTheDeep Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster]]''? King Kong was originally going to be the star monster instead of Godzilla. This is also evident by most of Kong's mannerisms being recycled into Godzilla's personality in the film, namely Godzilla's odd fascination with Dayo.
** A remake of ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' was planned for the Heisei Godzilla series (to coincide with Toho's 60th anniversary) but didn't happen because Turner Entertainment wouldn't let Toho use Kong. Reportedly, Anguirus had also been considered to be in it as well. Whatever the case, the film eventually evolved into ''Film/GodzillaVsKingGhidorah''
** A movie featuring Mechani-Kong fighting Godzilla while a team of scientists get injected into Godzilla's body also didn't happen due to Mechani-Kong's "striking resemblance." It is said that the mecha Bulgario featured in the toku series ''The Justirisers'' was based on the unused Heisei design for Mechani-Kong.
* Originally in ''Film/TerrorOfMechagodzilla'', Titanosaurus was going to be two plesiosaur-like dinosaurs, a male and a female, known as Titans, which were normally peaceful, but became aggressive after entwining their necks.
* An early draft of what would become ''[[Film/GodzillaAndMothraTheBattleForEarth Godzilla vs. Mothra]]'', ''Godzilla vs. Gigamoth'', sound INSANELY interesting.
** There was a proposed concept for a direct sequel which had Mothra's body be turned into a robotic cyborg known as [=MechaMothra=].
* ''Film/GodzillaVsGigan'' originally had two different scripts that were eventually heavily rewritten:
** The first draft was focused heavily on King Ghidorah and had the evil dragon team up with Gigan and a Red Dragon known as "''Mogu''". They were going to fight the team of Godzilla, Film/{{Rodan}}, and Film/{{Varan|TheUnbelievable}}. In this draft, Gigan had [[EpicFlail a ball-and-chain]] for one hand.
** The second draft was closer to what the film wound up becoming introduced the Space Hunter Nebula-M Aliens and the concept of Gigan teaming up with Ghidorah, as well as Godzilla and Anguirus as a tag-team. The only differences was that [[Film/GodzillaVsMegalon Megalon]] was also introduced to team up with Gigan and Ghidorah and a deity named "''Majin-Tuol''" teaming up with Godzilla and Anguirus.
* Biollante's rose form in ''Film/GodzillaVsBiollante'' was at one point replaced by a fish-rat creature named Deutalios, whom Godzilla was going to kill and then ''eat''. This was cut due to its graphic nature. Biollante was also originally planned to have only one form and a human face.
** The box office disappointment of ''Godzilla vs Biollante'' is primarily what led to Toho to go back to using older, popular monsters for most of the Heisei Era instead of creating new ones, such as following up with King Ghidorah, and then Mothra, and then Mechagodzilla. It also killed the conceptualization of a Bagan film that had been planned to follow the film had it been successful.
* ''Godzilla vs. Redmoon'' would have been a film by Creator/TsuburayaProductions (of ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' fame), in which Godzilla fights a family of monsters. It was scrapped for unknown reasons, and Tsuburaya eventually transformed the film into the very bizarre ''Film/DaigoroVsGoliath''.
* ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah''... In Africa.
** Additionally, Godzilla was originally going to fight a Mutant Starfish as a sequel to ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah''
* ''Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain'' was released in the US in an edited form as ''[[CutAndPasteTranslation Gigantis: The Fire Monster]]''. However, the original idea for the movie's US distribution was ''even more radical''. ''Godzilla Raids Again'' would've been "remade" into a completely different film known as ''The Volcano Monsters'' by AB-PT Pictures. Godzilla and Anguirus would've been referred to as simply [[DubNameChange a giant T-rex and Ankylosaurus]], the monsters would've attacked San Francisco instead of Osaka, and every scene with a Japanese actor would've been cut (along with everything else that the later ''Gigantis'' dub cut as well). Toho even lent their suits to AB-PT, since they were desperately trying to market their films to the US in any way they can at the time (even if it involved massive editing). Before the project could come to fruition, however, AB-PT Pictures [[AuthorExistenceFailure closed shop]]. The result? ''The Volcano Monsters'' (along with several other films they were developing) never saw a release, the two monster suits that Toho lent went missing, and what we got instead was the ''Gigantis: The Fire Monster'' release by Creator/WarnerBros
* It is believed that Henry G. Saperstein had approached Toho about making a movie with Godzilla fighting one or more [[Film/WarOfTheGargantuas Gargantuas]]. Sadly, the concept went nowhere, although Godzilla did end up fighting the Gargantuas in the comic series ''ComicBook/GodzillaRulersOfEarth''.
* Remember Kamoebas' corpse appearing in ''Film/GodzillaTokyoSOS''? Well, that was originally going to be Anguirus! However, the producers did not like the idea of Godzilla's closest ally appearing dead from a battle with Godziila, so the next idea was a Liopleurodon, which also got cut because Toho felt it would be useless to introduce a new monster and have it only appear as a corpse. Kamoebas was used instead to placate Anguirus fans and deliver a stealth TakeThat towards Film/{{Gamera}}.
* ''Film/DestroyAllMonsters''. Beyond the intention of being [[SeriesFauxnale the last Godzilla movie]], many other monsters were intended to appear but never made the final cut like [[Film/WarOfTheGargantuas Gaira the Green Gargantua]], Maguma the giant walrus from ''Gorath'', and Ebirah. Baragon and Varan were also intended to have larger roles, but the former suit had been damaged badly from usage in ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' and the latter suit hadn't been used in years, so it was replaced with a motionless prop for a few shots. Amusingly, the dub refers Gorosaurus as Baragon because the scene of Paris' destruction by a tunnelling Gorosaurus originally called for Baragon.
** King Kong was also slated to appear, but Toho ended up losing his licensing rights early into production.
* ''Film/GodzillaVsMegalon'' was originally to be a solo venture for Jet Jaguar (some believe as a PilotMovie for a TV series). However, Toho threw in Godzilla and Gigan at the last moment in hopes of boosting its ticket sales.
* A number of fans are still baffled by Anguirus burrowing about in ''Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzilla'' despite never displaying it before. Well, that's because they originally wanted to have Baragon appear instead. It was changed as Baragon's suit (once again) was not readily usable. Compare to the Gorosaurus example from ''Destroy All Monsters'' above.
** An earlier draft for the film had Godzilla, Anguirus, and Mothra teaming up to fight aliens called the Garugans. Mothra was replaced with the new King Caesar and the Garugans became the Black Hole Aliens and Mechagodzilla.
* 1993's ''Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzillaII'' was to be directed by Ishiro Honda, [[AuthorExistenceFailure but he died earlier that year.]] Likewise, it was intended to be the final Heisei film with the [[Script/Godzilla1994 intended 1994 Tristar film taking over.]] To that end, the original ending involved Mechagodzilla successfully killing Godzilla, only for Baby Godzilla to grow to full Godzilla size. The new Godzilla would then star in the 1994 Tristar film. Since that never came into fruition, Toho got back to work with ''Film/GodzillaVsSpacegodzilla'' the following year.
** Rodan's role in the film was originally going to be given to [[Film/TerrorOfMechagodzilla Titanosaurus]].
** Some early ideas for Mechagodzilla was that it would have an artificial alien life-form known as Berserk which would gradually get larger and more Godzilla-like by consuming machinery, and being comprised of seven separate vehicles which would combine to form Mechagodzilla (this version is actually what ended up being illustrated in the film's poster).
* Moguera's role in ''Film/GodzillaVsSpacegodzilla'' was originally intended for Mechagodzilla (rebuilt after the event of ''Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzillaII''. However, the producers came to the realization that the film had ''too many Godzillas'' (Godzilla, Little Godzilla, Spacegodzilla...), so Mechagodzilla was switched out in favour of a more obscure Toho giant robot.
** Originally Spacegodzilla was going to be called Astrogodzilla, had telepathic powers, and commanded an army of alien dragonflies. Mothra was also going to have a much larger role where she teamed up with Moguera and Godzilla. Most of this got cut for budget concerns.
* ''Film/MothraVsGodzilla'' was drastically different than what we got with the movie released in 1964. Godzilla was intended to have a bigger role. He was intended to have washed ashore and be a tourist attraction instead of Mothra's Egg, and upon awakening, was to attack the Country of [[Film/{{Mothra}} Rolisica]], instead of Nagoya. There were no Mothra Larva at all in the movie, only the Imago Mothra, who would've fought with Godzilla at the film's climax and won.
* In what can be considered a very tragically missed opportunity as of 1998, famed Japanese director Creator/AkiraKurosawa was a big fan of the Godzilla franchise, and wanted to direct his own installment of the series. Unfortunately, Toho turned him down, fearing the enormous budget that his [[EpicMovie epic style of filmmaking]] would require.
* ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'':
** It was rumoured that Creator/GuillermoDelToro was approached by Legendary Pictures to direct, though these rumours have since been debunked. Considering that the man has worked on a [[Film/PacificRim similar project]]... WhatCouldHaveBeen, indeed.
** The project started off in 2004, in the months before the release of ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'', as an IMAX 3D short film remake of ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah'' tentatively called ''Godzilla 3D to the Max'' that even had Yoshimitsu Banno as director at the time where he would have fought a Hedorah-like monster called Deathla. Over the course of 2007-2009, the project eventually morphed into a feature-length film under the aegis of Creator/LegendaryPictures.
** Godzilla was originally planned to be [[HumanPopsicle found preserved in a Siberian glacier]], like in the script for ''Script/Godzilla1994''. This was changed when the film team heard that ''Film/ManOfSteel'' had a very similar scene with the discovery of the Fortress of Solitude, in a case of pre-production DerivativeDifferentiation.
** The trailer with Oppenheimer speaking featured a few scenes of destruction cut and showed a huge, multi-armed woodlouse kaiju, apparently dead. It's not seen in the movie. Fans commonly refer to this monster as "Vishnu", due to Robert Oppenheimer's famous ''Destroyer of Worlds'' speech playing in the background, but in the concept art book ''Godzilla: Art of Destruction'' it's only referred to as "a strange, dead monster".
** The "Art of Destruction" book included concept art of a dogfight between the Male MUTO and some fighter jets.
** It also included an idea of the original script which was that the Male MUTO was presumably killed during the Hawaii fight but was actually cocooning and growing wings.
** The [=MUTOs=] were originally known as Hokmuto (the male, because he was supposed to emerge in Hokkaido) and Femuto (the female, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin because she's the female]]) and their EMP abilities were supposed to nullify Godzilla's atomic breath, although that only ended up making it into the novelization.
** Godzilla was also originally conceptualized as being ''six-hundred feet tall'' before being downscaled to three-hundred and fifty-five feet in the final film, which was still considerably taller than he had ever been before that.
** The cinematographers originally planned for the scene with Joe Brody's interrogation and outburst at the MONARCH facility to be shot using several elaborate camera angles and cuts. Bryan Cranston did such a good job with the first rehearsal take that they decided to just use that one and scrap their previous plans.
** There were apparently several attempts to [[spoiler: keep Joe Brody alive in the [[http://www.empireonline.com/features/godzilla-secrets-gareth-edwards/p2 script.]]]]
** Very early into development, the [=MUTOs=] were known as Rokmutul and Pterodactyl, which had more strongly reptilian designs, but these later became the female and male [=MUTOs=] respectively and ended up having more insectoid designs.
* The original 1954 movie ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' also went through many changes while it was in development. For one thing, Godzilla was originally going to be portrayed by using stop-motion animation. However, due to time and budget constraints, Toho Studios opted to instead use the now-famous art of suitimation with stunt actor Haruo Nakajima wearing a Godzilla-suit and destroying model buildings.
** Godzilla himself was originally going to be a giant octopus, and then a fire-breathing ape (as an homage to Film/KingKong). It wasn't until producers watched ''Film/TheBeastFromTwentyThousandFathoms'' that they decided to settle on making him a radioactive dinosaur. Only one major aspect of this scrapped idea was kept for the final version. The monster's name was kept "Gojira" (a combination of the words "Gorilla" and "Kujira" (Japanese for "whale") because executives at Toho simply liked the way it sounds and because they felt it perfectly described something large and powerful.
** Godzilla's debut shot of his head looking over a hilltop would have had him with a dead cow in his mouth. However, Toho cut it out because they realized this would create a size issue for Godzilla -- either Godzilla was going to be relatively small for the cow to be visibly clenched in his jaws, or the cow would have to be unnaturally gigantic in order to be seen in Godzilla's teeth.
* A ''VERY'' psychedelic story known as "''A Space Godzilla''" (and no, not [[Film/GodzillaVsSpacegodzilla that SpaceGodzilla]]) was written in 1979 by Creator/KatsuhiroOtomo (a.k.a. - The writer and director of Manga/{{Akira}}!) and was even proposed to Toho as a possible film (allegedly to be done with Main/StopMotion!). It details about a female alien that ''resembles'' Godzilla dying of ''diabetes'' and its Alien Son (which also resembles Godzilla) traversing the universe, reuniting with its Alien Godzilla father, and ultimately becoming one with the Cosmos, all while being told in a [[FollowTheLeader style similar to]] ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
* ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'' had a number of scrapped elements and kaiju, such as Gorosaurus (replaced by Zilla), Kiryu (replaced by the Gotengo), the Giant Octopus from ''King Kong vs Godzilla'', and King Ghidorah (replaced by Monster X and Keizer Ghidorah).
** Concept designs for Godzilla also looked ''radically'' different to any incarnation of the character, and looked like snakes with arms and legs than anything else. Another scrapped design looked like the [=KiryuGoji=] suit, but with red eyes, a Biollante-like chest pattern and a spiky skin texture, and one model design looked so radically different from the normal Godzilla design that it was hard to even see it as Godzilla.
** Additionally, Anguirus, Rodan and King Shisa[[DubNameChange /King Caesar]] were supposed to be killed, but the fact that the scene would require them to destroy the suits (which were going to be used for publicity shots and promotions), as well as the fact all three were allies of Godzilla's in the 60s and 70s, caused them to scrap it.
* [[http://www.kaijuphile.com/rodansroost/scrapyard/godzilla3d.shtml An American Godzilla movie was planned as far back as 1983]] and would have been in [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie 3-D]]. The plot would have been similar to ''Film/{{Gorgo}}'' as Godzilla would destroy San Francisco in search of his son, not knowing that his son was killed by a Soviet submarine and the corpse was undergoing scientific analysis. Godzila would have also have been killed at the end. Because no studio wanted to spend millions on a "kiddie picture", the film was scrapped along with a potential ''Film/{{Rodan}}'' remake, although Toho ''really'' liked the concept.
* There was an American-made sequel to ''Film/Godzilla2000'' planned known as ''Godzilla Reborn'', where Godzilla would arrive in Honolulu for an unknown reason, the military would knock him out (in the original script he was actually going to be ''killed'', and then cloned later on), and then a bat-like lava kaiju known as Miba (said to sort of resemble the winged MUTO but without legs) would have erupted from Mauna Loa, causing the characters to realize this is why Godzilla arrived in Hawaii. They wake him up and a BehemothBattle ending commences. It was scrapped after Columbia Pictures wasn't interested in a film with such a low budget (a proposed twenty million dollars), and Toho would have required other studios to pay a high cost to use the script. Planned actors that might have starred in the film included Bruce Campbell, Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, and Jamie Lee Curtis among others. Perhaps coincidentally, the idea of [[Film/Godzilla2014 Godzilla arriving in Honolulu to fight a winged kaiju in an American-made film]] would be reused thirteen years later.
* '''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Actual film idea]]''': ''Franchise/{{Batman}} [[CoolVsAwesome Vs. Godzilla]]''. Supposedly, some of the concepts from the film were recycled in ''Son of Godzilla'' like the weather control machine. It's probably worth noting the idea came around not too long after the famous 60s ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' show debuted. The closest this ever came to fruition was likely the Toho film ''Film/LatitudeZero'' (which is usually considered part of the Godzilla canon-verse), which starred Cesar Romero (who played the Joker in the Batman show) as the villain, who had an army of mutant animals, which included Bat Men (and yes, that is their official name).
* ''Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain'' was originally planned to have an ''incredibly bizarre'' immediate sequel in 1956 called ''Bride of Godzilla'', which would center around a giant RobotGirl created by a scientist to combat a third Godzilla and second Anguirus, only Godzilla to fall in love with her (yes, really!). It also would also take place in a HollowEarth world discovered by the characters the characters and home to a whole ecosystem of Godzillas, Anguiruses, and other monsters (like a giant chameleon and a mutant archaeopteryx). At the end the robot would have detonated its nuclear heart, killing Godzilla and destroying the ecosystem.
* In the early 2000s, film studio [[Creator/{{Daiei}} Kadokawa-Daiei Pictures]] approached Toho with the proposal of a '''Gamera vs. Godzilla''' crossover film. In what might be one of the most unfortunate missed opportunities in monster film history, Toho rejected the offer, and Kadokawa-Daiei went on to make ''Film/GameraTheBrave'' instead.
* Film/ShinGodzilla originally had a scene where Godzilla's third form vomited up a small lake of steaming blood, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vs4mgm4E4E which made it into production]] but was never finalized, and an alternate scene where workers find that Godzilla's dislodged tissue is growing back and instead of finding a clump of Godzilla's spikes, [[BodyHorror would find a teratoma-like mass of meat, eyes, and teeth]].
** Some other scenes that were cut included more shots of civilians fleeing and the destructive aftermath, a scene where Godzilla's fourth form was feebly crawling around on all fours (which was also present in the concept art), a scene where he was actually slithering on his tail like a snake, and a scene where he shot his atomic breath at the ground so that it momentarily ''propelled himself into the air''.
** Some ideas for Godzilla's design were also that he would have a second head (implicitly that he was reproducing by fission), that the [[spoiler: fifth form would emerge from his dorsal plates]], and that he would have started off looking normal but gradually became weirder as the film went on, while in the film proper the opposite occurred.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llhqnyDgoRo A large-scale animatronic of Godzilla's upper body]] was constructed that was semi-mobile, but it didn't end up in the final film, with every shot being a computer-generated model.
* In TheStinger of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', Godzilla was planned to have had a physical cameo, with several of the characters on a boat in the Arctic encountering him breaking through the ice. However, this clashed with the perceived timeline established in [[Film/Godzilla2014 the previous film]] which implied Godzilla never surfaced anytime between 1954 and 2014, so instead [[spoiler: Godzilla only appears as cave art alongside Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah]].
** There were also plans for Godzilla to appear in photographs early in the film, but the director did not want a movie about Kong to show Godzilla first and instead the photographs were replaced by images of a wrecked ship strongly implied to have been attacked by Godzilla.
** An earlier reference to King Ghidorah was also planned when Marlow exposits the story of Kong and the Skullcrawlers to the other characters, with the wall paintings around them showing multiple types of monsters, including one with "three heads", but in the end only Kong and the Skullcrawlers were shown.
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** Creator/TomHanks had been considered to play Zephram Cochrane, before Creator/JamesCromwell was cast.