One of Luke Pearson's early sketches of Hilda pre-Hildafolk
Hilda: "Everything's changed, hasn't it?"
Johanna: "Yes. But it's the way of the world for things to change."
Johanna: "Yes. But it's the way of the world for things to change."
The life of an adventurer is sure to be rife with plenty of unused ideas and changes.
The Graphic Novels:
- When Luke Pearson was first approached by Nobrow to create a comic for their 17x23 series, his original concept was a cyclical ghost story.
Instead, the concept he ended up going with turned into Hildafolk, which was based off his sketchbook drawings of a character that would eventually become Hilda. - Luke Pearson's pre-Hildafolk sketches of Hilda (featured here in this interview) are widely different from her final designs in the comics. His original sketches also show that she originally had a cat (or a "cat-bird" in one sketch) companion (who was swapped out for the deer-fox Twig by the time Hildafolk was published) and that Wood Man had a very different design in his early sketches, with him having pupils and resembling an elf.
- As seen in Hildafolk, Pearson had aimed something more similar to the The Moomins while developing it, and thus tried to replicate it. In later interviews, he felt he failed to do what he did due to being "way too much" and thus went for the approach as seen in the later graphic novels.
The Series:
Season One
- Luke Pearson never really considered the idea of a ''Hilda'' cartoon when originally creating the graphic novels, but they became popular enough that many production companies came forth with interest in making an Animated Adaptation. Luke however turned them all down as he felt none of them really understood what made Hilda work. Ultimately, it was Kurt Mueller of Silvergate Media who succeeded in winning Luke over, having stumbled across the books while browsing a New York bookshop and immediately become enchanted by them.
- The series was originally pitched to Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and CBBC before Netflix picked it. Disney was very close towards picking it up, going as far to commission Mercury Filmworks various animated tests, but dropped out at the last minute.
- Early concept art showed that the characters appeared drastically different than in the final product. One of the early animation tests also show that the designs were originally more faithful to the graphic novels at one point.
- There was talk of using an American or Swedish voice cast instead of a British one.
- Early press releases from the show's original 2016 announcement had listed the first season with twelve episodes instead of the thirteen as seen in the final series.
- The Marra were originally written as "full on goth kids".
- Concept sketches of Kaisa by Luke Pearson shows that there were a few different designs for her before settling on her final design. The design chosen for the series also shows that she originally had green highlights at one point, before the crew changed it to purple.
- The crew originally planned for Kaisa to have more scenes in season 1, but most of her scenes were scrapped as the team hadn't figured her character out then and felt the scenes in question didn't pan out. By the time they did nail down her character in "The Tide Mouse", it was too late to do much with her.
- In early 2024, the bible for the TV series would be leaked onto the internet and reveal several scrapped ideas for S1:
- The episode titles were originally planned to follow the same titling gimmick as the graphic novel series ("Hilda and The Noun Phrase"). It was likely scrapped for simplicity purposes. However, the Big Damn Movie — Hilda and the Mountain King — would follow this gimmick.
- "The Black Hound" was planned to happen far earlier in the season, which would've led to Tontu having a larger and reoccurring role in the first season. However, it was moved to the end instead.
- There was a planned episode for season 1 titled "Hilda and the Harbour Serpent", in which Hilda attends a troll market with Woodman and ends up befriending some of the trolls, whom she then works together with to ward off a sea serpent who shows up in Trolberg's harbor. While the episode was scrapped, many of its ideas would be reused in "The Stone Forest" and "Hilda and The Mountain King" (namely Hilda learning that trolls are not as bad as they seem and befriending them).
- The original overview for "The Lost Clan" (originally titled "Hilda and the Troll Thistle") in the bible features several differences from the final episode. The biggest difference is that there was an entire subplot cut in which Hilda, Twig, and Alfur must venture into a troll cave to acquire a "troll thistle" for the Lindworm, having a harrowing encounter with a troll in the process of doing so. Other differences include The Lindworm being originally located in a cave within Trolberg's walls instead of on an island away from Trolberg, and Frida and David having a far smaller role than in the final episode.
- The bible mentions a race of creatures known as "The Ice Spirits", who were stated to be a solitary race who are similar in size, but unrelated to the giants. Unlike the other species mentioned in the bible, this race never made it into the series.
Season Two
- A deleted scene from the first episode of the second season would have featured the Great Raven and provided a reason for why he didn't appear in the rest of the season (he left town, promising to be back for next year's festival). However, the scene ended up being cut for time.
- According to here. The original writing concept for The Fifty Year Night was very different from the final episode, with the original plan being that Hilda would travel 15 years in the future and team up with a 26-year-old David, who is emotional over seeing her after disappearing for so long and seeks to help her stop the time worm. This was scrapped as the writing team found the original idea to be overcomplicated and decided to simplify it. There were also plans for Hilda to go back to the past and meet a younger version of her mom, which was also scrapped.
- Early on during the second season's development, an episode titled The Witches Tower was planned, but was scrapped. It's thought that the episode would've served as a company piece to the actual The Witch episode, and was either cut for time or merged into the aforementioned final version.
- The Mountain King was written to be the series finale, and was developed with the understanding that no further renewals would happen (especially since The Mountain King is the last entry in the original graphic novel series). However, a third season was greenlit, much to the delight of the team.
- According to Kurt Mueller, it was originally supposed to be a part of the third season as a multi-part episode, but it eventually turned into a full movie. It was also supposed to be 70 minutes long, but after some negotiations with Netflix, it eventually became 85 minutes as the final length.
- According to director Andy Coyle, the Bellkeeper was intended to appear in the movie. He would be the one training David's mother in the tower, and seeing troll Hilda run to the gates. He also would have been the one fleeing from the tower when the rock is thrown at the tower, instead of David. He was cut from the film, because the animation team thought it was too much work to bring the voice actor back for a few sentences, and since his role in the previous season was too small.
- Coyle also originally wanted to incorporate Kaisa in the climax of the movie, with her rebelling against the rule that as a witch she is not allowed to interfere with the fight. This ultimately had to be scrapped due to limited time being available.
Season Three
- According to a (deleted) instagram post by Ako Mitchell (the VA for Wood Man) that ended up leaking some season 3 scripts, "The Giant Slayer" was originally titled "Lost in Time".
- According to series creator Luke Pearson (and later confirmed by director Andy Coyle), the third season was originally supposed to be the same length as the previous seasons (13 episodes), but it was cut down to only 8 episodes by Netflix, though it is worth mentioning that it has a 74 minute long Grand Finale episode (equivalent to 3.5 episodes), which is not dissimilar to the original plan for The Mountain King to be a multi-part episode.
