Gargoyles
The earliest known piece of Concept Art of Bronx, then named "Dog," from the earliest known concept art of the show, which at the time was more comedic.
What Could Have Been in this series.- The show was originally pitched as a comedy series in a style similar to Gummi Bears. The basic premise remained the same: approximately one-thousand years ago, Gargoyles were not merely stone statues, but real flesh-and-blood creatures. But, unlike the noble protectors of the final shows, these Gargoyles were mischievous troublemakers who frequently drove the local humans nuts. This development went through several versions before being scrapped, in favor of the darker, more serious vision of the show.
- Coco was originally supposed to be part of the main cast, but was replaced by Broadway for a variety of reasons, including the admission that more homely female characters are less accepted, and that female characters solve emotional and personal problems amongst the cast too easily. She was eventually introduced into the comics as a member of the London clan.
- Weisman also worked on a TV spinoff of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and planned to make one episode a Cross Through with Demona and that era's Hunter. Team Atlantis became a Stillborn Franchise and the show was canned before it aired, but an audio track of the episode exists and Weisman says the Broad Strokes are still canon in the Gargoyles 'verse.
- A live-action film with creature design by makeup legend Rick Baker was being developed in 1998 by Touchstone Pictures until being cancelled.
- Patrick Stewart was considered for the role of Goliath, Macbeth and King Arthur. However, Stewart's agent commanded a high salary. Greg Weisman and his crew thought of asking Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis to pressure Stewart's agent into lowering it down. Ultimately, they decided not to because they realized it would have been unfair to both Frakes and Stirtis. Stewart eventually did voice Goliath in a Robot Chicken sketch.
- A Direct to Video movie was in the works. "City of Stone" was originally pitched as this, and while the higher-ups liked the plot, the feature film treatment was abandoned because (as Weisman conceded) the main cast only play supporting roles. "Hunter's Moon" was subsequently conceived, but a video release was scrapped altogether and it became a three-parter.
- On a related note, "The Reckoning" was to be a two-parter and the Season 2 finale. When the movie was scrapped, it was shortened to a one-parter to help make room for "Hunter's Moon" to still be produced.
- Originally, there was going to be another Gargoyle at the series' start. Taking the name Ralph, he was going to be more reluctant to fight and instead spend his time watching television (a quality that Hudson ultimately inherited).
- The leader of the clan was originally supposed to be a female gargoyle named Dakota, but the creators couldn't work out an interesting personality for her. Goliath ended up being created to take over the leader role, while Dakota was ReTooled into a villain, becoming Demona.
- A female human was always meant to be the clan's chief ally in the modern world, but she went through a lot of development before becoming the character familiar from the show. Most obviously, she went through several names (she was Morgan for a while, which ended up being the name of one of her co-workers), and occupations (museum curator, school teacher, even Xanatos's business partner) before finally settling on Elisa Maza, police detective. She was also originally supposed to be a Hispanic woman and her name was going to be "Elisa Chavez", but was changed to match her VA's racial background. As with "Morgan", the name was reused, with Elisa's boss being Chief Maria Chavez.
- Similarly, the man who would become David Xanatos was always part of the show, but was originally conceived as a bungling, comical figure and a descendant of the character who would become the Magus (who was an Evil Sorcerer at this stage of development — the evil tenth century wizard role would end up going to the Archmage, and the modern descendant of an ancient foe role to Wolf). When the show's focus switched from action/comedy to action/drama, though, he quickly became a more familiar Machiavellian mastermind. His name was Xavier for much of his initial conception, but was changed to Xanatos to avoid confusion with another Xavier.
- Owen would have been a much more comedic figure with the original concept having him accidentally turned into a talking aardvark by a spell and spending the rest of the series walking around as an animal in a suit.
- CBS was interested in broadcasting the Gargoyles: Bad Guys spin-off, but after Disney took over ABC, it got cancelled. Only a leica reel was made and it was later shown at the Gatherings. Gargoyles: Bad Guys would eventually be made into a 6-part comic book by Slave Labor Graphics.
- Michael Eisner wanted the show to be cornerstone of Disney's own superhero universe, following an attempt to purchase Marvel Comics around that time that failed; this explains the sheer number of new characters and situations being setup in season 2. However, executive turmoil and interference foiled this plan. (Ironically, Disney would end up buying Marvel in 2009.)
- Along with Bad Guys, Weisman had a whole mess of other spin-offs planned (as part of Michael Eisner's above-described "hero universe" plans). Sadly, few have come to pass.
- One set a hundred years in the future with the characters' descendants fighting an Alien Invasion by the Space-Spawn who were mentioned in "Sentinel" (Gargoyles 2198)
- One set back in 10th century Scotland when Hudson was still clan leader (Gargoyles: Dark Ages, which has had a chapter or two posted on Greg's website in short story form). In 2023, it finally became reality as a comic miniseries from Dynamite Comics.
- One where humanity makes first contact with the New Olympians, complete with a pair of Star-Crossed Lovers between the two races in Terry Chung and Sphinx (The New Olympians). This one was conceived of as an unrelated show before Gargoyles even premiered, and retooled into a spinoff with a Poorly Disguised Pilot in the Gargoyles universe.
- Within The New Olympians, Ekidna's daughter Medusa was originally going to have Sphinx's role in the series, but was bumped down to recurring because her hair would be difficult to animate on a regular basis.
- Terry Chung has now appeared in several Gargoyles comics published by Slave Labor Graphics as a kid, and also in the Dynamite Comics 2023 Gargoyles Halloween special, where he befriends Brooklyn and Katana's son Gnash while trick-or-treating. This places the beginning of his adventures close to a decade after the Gargoyles "present day".
- One focusing on Rory and Molly (Heroes of Ulster)
- One where Brooklyn spends years being transported between various times and places by the Phoenix Gate, including crossing over with 2198, eventually acquiring a family in the process (TimeDancer). In the canonical Gargoyles comic continuation from Slave Labor Graphics, we see Brooklyn embarking on his timedancing adventures and his ultimate return to the present day with his family as a mature adult with an eyepatch, but the years in-between have yet to be told.
- One where we follow King Arthur, Sir Griff and Lady Blanchefleur on their quest to rebuild Camelot in the modern day (Pendragon)
- The Goliath Chronicles episode "Ransom" (now known for its Chickification of Fox after her son is kidnapped) had its genesis in an idea by Weisman involving Puck and Lexington having to get Alex back from three other Third Race tricksters: Coyote, Anansi and Raven.
- All the Mayan gargoyles were planned to be snake-like, but only Zafiro ended up like this.
- Greg had a Disney employee in talks with Square Enix to include the Gargoyles property in Kingdom Hearts, but said employee was "let go"
before they could be finalized. - Jordan Peele, fresh off his success with Get Out (2017), approached Disney to do a live-action feature film remake of the series, but the company turned him down.
- The Sega Genesis video game was going to receive a port for the Super Nintendo, but for whatever reason it never materialized.
