God Never Said That / Western Animation

• Amphibia: For awhile after the show ended, it was claimed that series creator Matt Braly had said that Polly wouldn't remember Anne when she grew up. In actuality, Braly had praised a fancomic with that premise and seemed quite alarmed that people had taken his words out of context.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • A lot of people on This Very Wiki have accused The Legend of Korra co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante Dimartino of being Lying Creators for claiming that they had always planned for Korra to end the series by getting together with Asami. However, they claimed no such thing. The closest was Bryan saying that he had pitched Korrasami during initial planning for Book One as a joke^note The oft quoted line about him being "the first Korrasami shipper" originates here as well. and that (contrary to Fanon) they never planned for Korra and Mako to get back together after their breakup. They have both consistently stated that they only started writing a Korrasami romance at the beginning of Book Three.
  • It was widely claimed from around 2011 to 2018 that there were plans for a fourth season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, with the source being an alleged discussion a fan had with head writer Aaron Ehasz following a panel at some convention. Among ideas such as backstory episodes for Iroh and a story arc for Toph, he supposedly stated that he planned for Zuko and Katara to be the end pairing. This was later debunked when Ehasz outright said on Reddit during a Q&A promoting The Dragon Prince that all of this information was fabricated. He'd later elaborate that while a fourth season was briefly considered before focus was shifted to the live-action film, none of those fan ideas were among those actually pitched. However, series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino have contradicted Ehasz's claims in an interview, saying that they never even considered making a fourth season.
  • In the DVD commentary for Book 1 of Korra, the creators revealed that when the show only still intended as a mini-series, Asami was going to end up in the United Forces and start a relationship with Zuko's grandson Iroh. They said that when she told Mako, his reply would have been "The heck, he's like 36!" which a lot of fans took to mean that 36 is his canonical age in Book 1. While Iroh is supposed to be a bit older than then 18-year-old Asami, he's not that much older. It's still a pervasive misconception but the discarded joke in context is clearly an exaggeration for comedic effect. The joke is also about Asami looking older than she is, not about Iroh looking younger than he is.
• The reason why Jetray was excluded from Ben 10: Omniverse was partially because the crew was tired of his frequent appearnaces in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, and partially because Executive Meddling prevented them from adding any new or old aliens to Ben's roster after a few seasons. Fans were convinced that the crew actually hated Jetray, with their evidence being the existence of Astrodactyl and Ben's only mention of Jetray in Omniverse being uncharacteristically derisive.
• The show Bonkers is frequently thought to be a retooled Roger Rabbit TV series, with Bonkers being an expy of Roger due to copyright issues. Greg Weisman, who worked on the series, has repeatedly stated that while Roger Rabbit was an inspiration, it was only that.
• Bluey: It's commonly stated that Word of God confirmed that the titular character is a rainbow baby, a child born after a miscarriage. In fact, while Joe Brumm did state that Chilli had a miscarriage, he never specified if it was before or after Bluey's birth.
• Classic Disney Shorts: During an interview done in the wake of the publication of his biography on Walt Disney, Neal Gabler claimed that Walt "absolutely hated" the Goofy cartoons, thinking they were nothing but "stupid cartoons with gags tied together." However, there is no primary source to confirm that Walt actually said that. The fact that Neal Gabler didn't cite all his sources—a major flaw for a biographer—doesn't help.^note If anything, Harry Tytle, who actually worked with Walt, is a more reliable source on the matter; according to his book One of Walt's Boys, in a chapter called "Shorts Go Out of Style," Walt's main issue with the Goofy cartoons was the difficulties they posed during the waning years of The Golden Age of Animation, especially when it came to merchandising.
• Danny Phantom: It's commonly stated that someone on the show's creative team, or even Butch Hartman himself, had confirmed Ember's backstory as her being an unpopular high schooler who wanted to be a rock star. One day, a popular boy asked her to the movies, but he never turned up; Ember ended up staying up all night waiting for him, which resulted in her sleeping through the freak fire that spread through her home and killed her. This fan-cited backstory has never been sourced. Not only does it contradict both Ember's Villain Song "Remember" (which implies that Ember died at least two weeks after the interaction) and Hartman's official stance that the ghosts in Danny Phantom are their own species and not the echoes of dead humans, it also doesn't make much sense on its own either (why was there a fire and why does Ember care so much about it if it was random? Why wouldn't anybody attempt to wake her up? Also, being awake for so long doesn't suddenly mean you have hypersomnia the next time you fall asleep.).
• DuckTales (2017) incorporates the original's Spiritual Successor, Darkwing Duck as a Show Within a Show beloved by Launchpad in his childhood during the Season 1 episode "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!" In response, a fan asked co-producer Frank Angones whether or not the in-series show included Darkwing's Kid Sidekick Gosalyn, to which Frank replied, "Darkwing without Gosalyn is not Darkwing." The fandom at large generally interpreted this as, yes, Gosalyn had existed in the in-series show. Fast-forward to months later, when the Season 2 episode "The Duck Knight Returns!" airs, in-series Darkwing actor Jim Starling goes mad when replaced by another actor for a reboot film and turns into Negaduck. The actor's name is Drake Mallard, the civilian identity of the real-world Darkwing Duck series. Frank had actually meant that the Show Within a Show lacked Gosalyn's presence, because Jim Starling was not the real Darkwing.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • For years, many fans spread that it was confirmed that Edd has blond hair. It was mentioned in an interview that Edd has curly blond hair (most fans forgot the "curly" part), but it was clearly a joke. Edd has no confirmed hair colour.
  • The episode "Special Ed" may-or-may-not be an example. It was mentioned in an interview that "Special Ed" was an episode idea that was never produced because it was "too real". But, the quote in question might have been hacked into the interview.
• For The Fairly OddParents!, the Distant Finale ending for Channel Chasers showing Timmy's two children Tommy and Tammy depicted Tammy as wearing glasses similar to Tootie's, which many fans took as implying that Tootie is supposed to be their mother and thus who Timmy ultimately ends up with. This is a misconception, as it was never intended for the mother to be explicitly Tootie. Butch Hartman himself would state that the mother's identity was meant to be ambiguous, hence why Tammy has elements from all of Timmy's love interests (Tammy also has Trixie's hairstyle and headband and possibly Veronica's eyelashes).
• Gravity Falls:
  • Since Alex Hirsch is active on Twitter, the fandom has an unsurprising tendency to create fake tweets. After Hirsch hinted in the behind-the-scenes special Between the Pines that Dipper's real name had something in common with Mabel's, one of these screenshots gave rise to a popular rumor that his real name was Michael. Instead, Gravity Falls: Journal 3 tells us that it's Mason.
  • Prior to the second season, when he stated in an interview that a character would die in upcoming episodes, he never said that a main character would die: the death that he was referring to was of the town's elderly mayor, which served as the catalyst for a Breather Episode. This still persisted for quite some time after the episode, however, with people believing Mabel would die in the finale thanks to a video of her voice actress acting as if she would. It would later turn out this was just the creator trolling her after she finished her line read for a scene where it seems like Mabel or Dipper would be killed off. This would briefly pop up again years after the show's conclusion, with some fans spreading the idea that the creators did want Mabel to die, but Disney vetoed it, with that instance coming from fans misinterpreting head writer Michael Rianda discussing abandoned story ideas on Twitter; the idea of Season 2 revolving around preventing a Bad Future was briefly thrown around, but was quickly scrapped due to Hirsch and Rianda being unable to figure out how to plot that storyline.
  • In a Reddit AMA held shortly after the season one finale, Hirsch replied to a question about how long he'd want the show to last by saying "Originally, I thought three." This answer was quickly misinterpreted as him saying he had planned out a three season Myth Arc, leading to the belief that the back-half of Season 2 would have been the plot for a possible third season had he not chosen to Wrap It Up. He'd later explain in detail in an interview upon the show's conclusion that this was never the case, with him having no idea what the overarching plot for the second season would be when writing began.
• A persistent rumor states that the Hey Arnold! episode "The Pigeon Man" would've ended with Vincent committing suicide by hurling himself off the building, but was nixed by the higher ups. Show creator Craig Bartlett denies this and says that the ending shown was the intended one from the beginning.
• Word of God has said that the "Wolverine" short of Hulk Vs. takes place in the same universe as Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. However, the same was never said for the "Thor" short in Hulk Vs., despite Graham McTavish and Kari Wahlgren reprising the respective roles of Loki and the Enchantress in EMH in addition to Fred Tatasciore as the Hulk.
• Invader Zim:
  • The fandom was quite prone to this. Some things are attributed to Jhonen Vasquez that were actually said by Steve Ressel or Eric Truehart, and then there's a lot of things that weren't said anywhere except perhaps in some particularly influential fanfic. Dib being an artificial creation of Professor Membrane's is an example of the former^note and note that "clone of Membrane" was never specified, Zim being "16 in Irken years" is an example of the latter.
  • Jhonen hating the show and saying that he "would never work in animation ever again" was also a common belief following the show's cancellation. However, he makes appearances at conventions and has repeatedly said how much he enjoyed working on the show due to how much he was allowed to get away with in a Nickelodeon cartoon (the only real Executive Meddling was not allowing deaths). Not only was Vasquez heavily involved in the comic book series that spawned over a decade later, but he also returned to direct the 2019 television movie. This belief may have stemmed from series director Steve Ressel, who stated that he'd never want to work on the show ever again, and indeed left the animation industry after attempting one more animation project.
  • In the DVD commentary for "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", the cast claims that there were plans to kill off Dib and replace him with a new character named Louie. Many fans who hear about it secondhand take this to be completely serious and use it as yet another example of Nickelodeon's Executive Meddling. If one listens to the commentary themselves, however, it's pretty clear that this was just playful ribbing. The supposed reason for wanting to kill off the character was that Jhonen just hates Dib's voice actor, Andy Berman, who's taking part in the conversation.
• A long-standing Jem rumor said Christy Marx would have liked to have had LGBT characters in the show and that Rapture would be revealed as not straight. This was disproven at JemCon 2018, where Christy said the topic never crossed her mind when she was working on the show.
• Word of God said Kovu wouldn't appear in The Lion Guard. This got twisted to "Kovu's dead," until it was made clear The Lion Guard takes place before Kiara meets Kovu and he is alive. Word of God later said he's going to appear, and indeed he eventually did, confusing this issue further.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Lauren Faust never planned to have any major over-arcing plots for the show: the intention for the series was always as episodic comedy/adventure show.
  • A variant ("God Never Said She Didn't Say That") in regards to the notion that Faust hated the earlier My Little Pony shows: What she has certainly said is a more general statement regarding how she never liked cartoons based on girls' toys, but that she loved playing with said toys as a kid regardless. People tend to interperet the statement as her specifically either hating or liking My Little Pony G1.
  • Lauren Faust was particularly susceptible to this trope during her short time as showrunner, it seems. Late during her tenure as the show's executive producer, when asked about the popular background character "Derpy Hooves", she said there was an unseen character in an upcoming episode by the name of Ditzy Doo, and the name might at some point be applied to the character. What fans failed to notice was that she was just speculating at this, as she additionally noted that if the fans liked Derpy, then the name would remain Derpy. This has caused a bit of a Broken Base about which name was "canon" or "better", that continues to persist long after the show's end, especially since said character would eventually get an a different name altogether: Muffins.
  • When supervising director Jim Miller said that the show and the comics would "remain separate", a Vocal Minority happened to take those words to mean the comics aren't canon. What he actually meant that nothing major from the comics would be integrated into the show in order to avoid Continuity Lock-Out between the show and comics.^note EQUESTRIA GIRLS stories get no mention in the show for the same reason. The only acknowledgment of Equestria Girls anywhere in the main show is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo by EG-exclusive character Sunset Shimmer during the final episode's montage of minor characters. When accused by a fan of declaring the comics as "non-canon", Miller made it clear that "separate" and "non-canon" mean two different things.◊
• The Powerpuff Girls:
  • It was once said that Craig McCracken himself gave his blessing on the The Powerpuff Girls (2016) reboot. What he actually said was that he wished they hadn't rebooted the show, but he understands why it was done.
  • Even the original series isn't safe from this. It has been stated that Craig McCracken hated the Rowdyruff Boys because he was tired with the Dracoin Leather Pants treatment of them, and left them out the 10th anniversary special "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!" out of spite because of it. This has been debunked, since he clarified that he thinks the Boys are great characters and that the real reason he left them out was because they were not independent villains, and extensions of Mojo Jojo and HIM.
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Although Mystery Incorporated Velma is confirmed by Word of Gay to be lesbian, this was taken by some to mean that all her incarnations are lesbian. This statement only applied to the Mystery Incoporated version of the character, as Scooby-Doo has multiple continuities. Versions of Velma in shows and movies before and since (save for Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!) have showed interest in men.
• Sofia the First: In 2012, it was claimed that Sofia was Latina. After complaints, Disney revealed that she wasn't and blamed it on a misquote. Sofia's mother is from a Spanish-inspired country, making Sofia Hispanic, but not Latina. In 2015, Elena of Avalor was revealed as "Disney's first Latina princess".
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • The show does not have a consistent canon. Despite this, it is believed that The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is meant to be the grand finale, taking place at the end of the timeline. While Stephen Hillenburg did say that he wanted to end the show at this point, he never stated it to be the official, canonical ending.
  • After a Spinoff Babies show titled Kamp Koral was greenlit, much outrage occurred because a lot of fans believed that Stephen Hillenburg stated that he did not want spinoffs and that Nickelodeon was essentially desecrating a dead man's wishes by going through with the spinoff after Hillenburg's passing. Vincent Waller clarified in a tweet that what Stephen Hillenburg actually said was that he did not expect any spinoffs, stressing that there is a difference between not expecting something to happen and not wanting something to happen, adding that Hillenburg once said that he didn't have an interest in making a movie, yet they later went on to make three movies (the first two of which were made and released in Hillenburg's lifetime).
• Steven Universe:
  • Many fans insist Pearl is canonically a lesbian to "disprove" heterosexual pairings involving the character and accuse shippers of homophobia and lesbian erasure. While the showrunners have confirmed that she has had romantic feelings towards at least two women, and she was explicitly uninterested in the one man who had feelings for her, they never specified her sexuality.
  • The artbook had a joking nod to the theory that fusion is just a metaphor for sex, but made it clear that fusion actually serves as a much broader metaphor for various kinds of relationships, not just sexual or romantic ones. However, this was quickly warped into the exact opposite, with fans saying that the artbook confirmed the theory.
  • A persistent rumor sprung up after "Alone at Sea", an episode about Jasper trying to get Lapis Lazuli to fuse with her in order to become Malachite again (serving as a metaphor for toxic relationships), that Lapis is a self-insert of Rebecca Sugar and her experience with an abusive relationship and that Jasper was based on her abuser. This was a conclusion fans made when Sugar said she started drawing her "Margo in Bed" comic after a "bad breakup" and that the eponymous character was a self-insert of herself and a "proto-Lapis." However, she has never disclosed such personal information or even said that Lapis was intended as the victim of the relationship. Rather that Malachite represents an unhealthy, loveless relationship that brings out the worst in people.
  • People who hated the plot twist from "A Single Pale Rose", in which Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond turn out to be the same person often say that the crew said they didn't plan past "Ocean Gem" until after the episode aired, often as proof that the writers came up with the twist at the last minute and that any quotes to the contrary are lies. This is incorrect, as they actually said they didn't storyboard past "Ocean Gem" due to being unsure about the show's future beyond that. It was consistently stated that the aforementioned twist was one of the first plot points thought up about the show.
  • The crew never explicitly debunked the theory related to the above twist. What they did say was stuff like "Her name is Rose QUARTZ", which turned out to be true in the end.
• For a long time, people believed that the late Isaac Hayes left South Park due to an episode making fun of Scientology, which Isaac was a member of. It wasn't until many years later that Isaac's son cleared the air by saying that while his father was a little uncomfortable by the episode, he actually loved working on the show and he was in actual tears when members of Scientology pressured him to quit the show if the writers didn't stop making fun of them. The real reason for Isaac's departure was him suffering a stroke that also affected his mind.
• Gerry Anderson once said that Team America: World Police was closer in spirit to his show Thunderbirds than that film's Live-Action Adaptation. Some accounts exaggerate this, saying that he liked Team America. This was not actually the case. Anderson didn't like Team America, all he said was that it was closer in spirit to his show, with the context being less praise of Team America and more a Take That! to the live-action film.
• Detractors of Teen Titans Go! often make the claim that the producers have never seen the previous 2003 incarnation based on an interview done prior to the series' release. In reality, it was just one of a few jokes sprinkled throughout that interview. When asked later, both Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic were amused by the idea of them supposedly being unfamiliar with the characters, as the former has always been a fan of the original show and the latter has worked on several other animated projects starring DC Comics characters. Amy Wolfram, one of the head writers for the previous incarnation, has also written several episodes for the series throughout its run.
• Young Justice (2010) co-creator Greg Weisman interacts quite a bit with fans, and naturally gets misunderstood from time to time. One of the most persistent examples: He stated that there would be deaths in season one, and that not even the main characters were necessarily safe. This was often misquoted as him saying that a main character definitely would die by the end of season one. None of them did, and the one time a main character did die (Wally West) was in season 2.

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