What Could Have Been / Ninjago

• One very early design concept for the Ninja has a quintet that includes a moon ninja, a storm ninja, and a water ninja, the lattermost of which was eventually worked into the final show in the form of Nya gaining water powers.
• Zane's name was originally going to be Whitman.
• Likewise, Kai was originally called Dante.
• Nya was going to be called Aya and she would have been the master of air.
• A beat sheet for the pilot episodes from January 2010 has a similar plot structure to the version that aired a year later, but still has drastic differences.
  • Cole is the only character whose name is finalized. Kai, Nya, Zane, Jay, Samukai and Garmadon are instead called Ash, Aura, Wynn, Rayne, Grim and Demic; Wu goes unnamed in this draft.
  • Reaching the Scythe of Quakes would have required solving a "riddle of crest", as opposed to just noticing that the Skullkin are searching in the wrong place.
  • The dragons would have been tamed in the third act of the story instead of the fourth. Notably, Cole takes the lead in getting the Earth dragon under control; in the final version, he's afraid of dragons and it's Kai who has the idea to befriend them.
  • Instead of the Ninja letting the Golden Weapons-created portal close on its own, they follow Demic/Garamdon through it and end up in a futuristic city. Wu is left behind to tell Kai's sister that he isn't returning.
• The Scythe of Quakes was originally going to be a hammer. While the show remained consistent with the Golden Weapon being a scythe, after Season 8, he would wield a hammer to have synergy with the 2017 film adaptation, and sporadically wields it as the show goes on.
• Lord Garamdon was originally planned to be the one to release the Serpentine instead of his son.
• Originally, the show was considered to end with Season 7, and would have ended differently than in the actual show. Rather than Wu sabotaging the Iron Doom and sending the Time Twins to an unknown point in time, the Time Twins would have willingly gone centuries into the future in an attempt to find an era where the Ninja have long since died off. However, they not only end up just forty years in the future, but end up right next to a visibly older Kai (who is near-identical to his reflection from the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master in Season 5), who quickly disables the Iron Doom and locks them up in a technologically-advanced successor to Kryptarium Prison (that would have been laced with chronosteel, the same material the Time Blades are made from, in order to render the Time Twins powerless once more). The rest of the Ninja (also resembling their reflections) appear, and the series ends with them discussing their past adventures as they walk off^note It's not been specified whether this idea was scrapped due to the show's popularity, the recent release of the movie, or the creators simply having second thoughts on ending it.
  • In addition, the Ninja (sans maybe Zane given he's a Nindroid) were planned to have children who'd appear after the 40-year Time Skip. Said children would have developed their elemental powers by now.
• For "Dead Man's Squall" in Season 8, a new track was meant to be made to fit the tone of the Cold Open and intro with Zane nearly being beaten to death by Mr. E, but was ultimately decided against at the last second after a realization that "Built to Protect" (The song of Zane's sacrifice in Season 3) would fit as a Call-Back to Zane's death back then, and even synchronized with the opening.
• Mr E. was originally going to be revealed to be Echo Zane, upgraded by Harumi, but it was cut from Season 9 due to so many major plot developments taking place in that time span and being too difficult to fit in. Tommy Andreasen didn't care much for the idea anyway, thinking it wouldn't have made much sense for Echo Zane to defeat Zane.
• The main show writers, the Hageman brothers, contemplated having Hutchins return later in season 8 and the Ninja would've concluded that he was The Quiet One but he was only a Red Herring and that he "would've made a killer ally".
• Among Garmadon's proposed names were the name he got and "Demic" (derived from "Pandemic"), the latter of which was the name the Hageman Brothers and Tommy Andreason wanted to use, but they couldn't get legal clearance to use it, and thus they were stuck with Garmadon.
• Jay's mother was considered to have a major role in Prime Empire, powering the game in some way, but this idea was never implemented in the final show.
• Tommy Andreasen revealed in an interview that a slightly different, Darker and Edgier ending was originally planned for the final season. Garmadon would actually die instead of having a fake-out death, and Lloyd, consumed by grief, would assume his Oni form, destroy the Overlord all by himself and take his throne, becoming the show's final antagonist. The other ninja would eventually defeat him and turn him back to light, and the rest of the ending would be roughly similar to the final one.
• Harumi was supposed to come back as a cyborg with spider-like elements. This was scrapped when the crew learned of the Spider Queen from Monkie Kid, with the character instead being revived as they originally were.
• Tommy Andreasen also revealed that Nadakhan was meant to be part of the Council of the Crystal King, but this was dropped due to his return being "too complicated" to explain. Eventually, the plan was that Clutch Powers would drop the Teapot of Tyrahn and thus, freeing Nadakhan, allowing the djinn to join the Council.