Teen Titans #20 originally featured a black superhero named Jericho, but the story was considered too heavy-handed in its anti-racism message. Fearing that they'd lose potential buyers in the South, Carmine Infantino ordered the entire plot rewritten. The hero was changed to a white man and renamed "Joshua". Marv Wolfman and Len Wein (the original writers of the story) would wind up blacklisted from DC for about two years as a result of the controversy, and the Jericho name wound up being used for the codename of Deathstroke's heroic son Joseph introduced in the 1980s New Teen Titans (written by Marv Wolfman, in fact).
Bob Rozakis had intended to move Wonder Girl and Speedy to Titans West, while bringing Bat-Girl and another member to the east coast team. This would set up a love triangle between Bat-Girl, Robin, and Harlequin, with both girls vying for his attention. Speedy and Wonder Girl's relationship would also have been focused on a little more.
Harlequin was to also be the star of a back-up story in the series Vixen in 1978. When Vixen wound up being among several potential titles to be axed, the Duela Dent back-up stories never got off the ground.
Raven was originally intended to be black, but it was felt that having a black character be called "Raven" was a bit too on the nose.
Wolfman and Perez originally envisioned Jericho as gay but realised some aspects of him would be seen as a bit too stereotypical, hence it was discarded, however the character would come out as bisexual in the New 52.
Frances Kane was to become a superhero around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths, with a concept design even appearing in DC Sampler, but this was put on hold after George Perez left NTT. The idea of Frances taking on a costumed identity did come to pass years later, though her color scheme was tweaked to be magenta and white rather than Perez's intended red and blue outfit for her. A proposed codename for her was long believed to be "Polara", although Perez says there was a different name in place (though he can't remember the exact one). In the final product, she took the name "Magenta" (after her costume color and as an anagram pun on her magnet powers) and became a villain as a result of undergoing a Face–Heel Turn from a Split Personality. It wouldn't be until the New 52, nearly thirty years after Crisis on Infinite Earths, that Frances would finally be a member of the Teen Titans, specifically the team led by Dick Grayson that was erased from history after their fight with Mister Twister.
Wolfman and Perez had penned a graphic novel titled "Games", that was to take place during New Titans and that would explain the final fate of Cyborg's friend, Sarah Simms. Due to Perez' departure and his later health problems, the novel's fate was a constant uncertainty. At one point, Wolfman considered tweaking the plot to have it tie into Geoff Johns' volume 3 run (with the current Titans being shown in a framing sequence), but this idea did not get far. The story was finally released as a standalone and out-of-continuity tale, with some tweaking done to its plot (although Sarah Simms' death remained intact). The original plans were included as an extra in the graphic novel.
Aqualad was nearly Killed Off for Real during the Titans Hunt storyline, but editor Jonathan Peterson wanted him to live. Golden Eagle was killed in his place just to make the Wildebeest Society seem like a more credible threat. Aqualad died many years later during Blackest Night before eventually reappearing in the New 52 whilst Golden Eagle would get revived during Infinite Crisis in Hawkman 2004
Nightwing and Starfire were to actually be married, and would temporarily retire from the team while letting Donna take over as leader. The Batman editorial office did not approve, and their marriage was hastily canned note The wedding itself still happened, but a Trigon-controlled Raven crashed the wedding and killed the preacher, aborting it and starting a storyline where she put several Titans under her control, but her good side had been put in Starfire and retook its body to purge the corruption. while Nightwing was brought back to the Bat-books. Donna was also depowered (see below), leaving Arsenal to be the new leader instead. Interestingly, issues #81-83 of Mark Waid's run on The Flash refer to Nightwing and Starfire as having just been married, showing that the plan to have their wedding fail was indeed a sudden case of Executive Meddling. While DC has shied away from having the two show any romantic interest in one another again, porting Barbara Gordon's Age Lift and Promoted to Love Interest role from Batman: The Animated Series to retcon her as his first love and giving him other love interests such as Huntress, other continuities, most notably alternate continuities where they get married, Teen Titans (2003), and the DC Animated Movie Universe still bring the pairing back.
A Nightwing mini-series was planned as a way to set up the aforementioned marriage, but did not come to pass. Both Nightwing and Starfire would have been heavily redesigned in their costumes and overall look. Jonathan Peterson's departure for Image Comics, as well as the Batman editor issues, played a part in the series falling through.
Donna Troy would not have lost her powers at the end of the "Total Chaos" arc, but would have instead created a new costume from Lord Chaos' cape. The editor at the time (Peterson) had hoped to have her husband killed off at the hands of a demonic Raven, but this was nixed due to Donna being depowered, though Terry Long was later killed off anyway.
Pantha was to get an origin story, written by Louise Simonson. In it, Pantha would be revealed to be a bookish woman transformed into a monstrous creature by the HIVE.
Wolfman had suggested the idea of Nightwing and Troia potentially being a couple, due to the fact that different editorial departments had split up two of his previously-established couples in canon (Donna's marriage with Terry and the would-have-been Nightwing/Starfire marriage). While it never came to be, Titans (2018) did depict them as childhood friends.
Titans spinoff books that were rejected during this time included a proposal by Rob Liefeld (that evolved into Youngblood (Image Comics)), a series for the team "The Hybrid", and another team called "The Rogue Titans", presumably having evolved into the Terror Titans team assembled by Deathstroke.
A character named Split (who appeared in the series Steel) was shown as a member of the Titans in the DC vs. Marvel trading card set, but never appeared in the series. One can only assume that he was intended, at the time, to join the team, but the idea never materialized.
One storyline that was never developed included Nightwing attempting to return to the Titans, only to clash with Arsenal over leadership and cause tensions within the team. Wolfman teased the possibility that Nightwing would form another group of Titans, and that the existing members would have been split between remaining on Arsenal's side or joining the rival team. Ultimately he returned to the team when he joined the DC Rebirth Titans, though on friendlier terms with Arsenal.
The mysterious leader of the Teamers was intended to be a grown-up Danny Chase from the future, but editorial decided to instead have him revealed to be Monarch in order to tie the title's cancellation into the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! mini-series.
One Team Titans idea that never got used bore some similarity to the Legion of Superheroes' "SW6 Batch" storyline: There would be a team of teenage, alternate universe versions of the Wolfman/Perez Titans that would wind up having to interact with their current selves.
Wolfman had also toyed with the idea of a Titans group modeled after the original five-member '60s team, but with more modern attitudes to contrast the originals' campy "goody-two shoes" personalities.
Jimenez had also hoped to reveal that the Teamers were from an alternate Earth, and intended for Terra II to be a lesbian and an earth elemental-type. He had planned on killing off Mirage, who'd attempt to abort her unborn child by shapeshifting it out of existence and would wind up dying in the process.
Marv Wolfman re-introduced Kole in his run of Team Titans, as he'd regretted having had to kill her off. While he dropped hints that she was some sort of ghost or supernatural entity sent to aid the team, the editorial team told Jimenez to explain her away as one of Monarch's puppets.
The original plan for the book was quite different. As The New Titans had a largely adult cast at the time, the idea was that Team Titans would start with a cast of Decoy Protagonists, only to get rid of them all around issue #12, introduce the above-mentioned alternate universe Wolfman/Perez Titans as the new protagonists, and then finally rename the book Teen Titans. The new versions of the classic Titans would have also been much younger, allowing them to bring back the Teen part of the name without making it an Artifact Title.
Phil Jimenez had wanted to do a story where Duela Dent (previously shown as an asylum patient in one issue of his run) would be revealed to be a member of one of the various Titan teams from the future, that would have been modeled after the '60s-70s team. Having been stranded in the past and separated from her team, she would have gone insane and stolen a special hourglass that would allow her to warp reality. The editorial team rejected the story for being too "strange" and for referencing Duela (who Wolfman and others would not allow to exist in Post-Crisis continuity). However, this story does appear in an injoke for a false "next issue" tagline in the final story of Team Titans.
"Joto" was originally "Slag" in early promotional interviews. As a reference to this, Isaiah initially takes the codename "Slagger" until his father convinces him that honoring his Swahili heritage would be for the better, leading to him taking later names such as Joto and Hotspot.
Tim Drake was to originally join the team, but the Batman editors forbid the story and Captain Marvel Jr. was put on the team instead. Only following Graduation Day was Tim finally let onto the Teen Titans.
Wildcat was to be the team's mentor, but due to the depowering of the Justice Society of America in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, Dan Jurgens was forced to scrap the idea, the de-aged Atom leading the team comes the closest to having an adult mentor.
Nightwing was to also feature in the title as a mentor, but the problems with the Batman editorial office (see above) persisted. The character Omen was also intended to be Raven (in her reformed gold spirit form), but was eventually revealed to be a new identity of Lilith's.
Three alien hybrid children were left unaccounted for by the time of the series' cancellation. According to Jurgens, one was the villain Sweet 16 while the other two were other wannabe heroes that had showed up at a membership drive (Kid Emotion and The Solution).
The identity of Lilith Clay's mother, whom she apparently inherited her psychic abilities, was never revealed though it was clear she would've been the focus of a future story. Word of God from Dan Jurgens is that her mother is a preexisting DC character, and so far he's yet to actually admit who she is in case he ever has a chance to go back and complete the story.
In 2011, writer Nick Spencer had big plans for Supergirl before he left partway through his first issue. He was planning on setting Kara up as a leader like her cousin Kal and would have led to the creation of a new Young Justice. The story plans go that the villain would have been the Luthor-Brainiac clone and, to deal with it, Kara would gather a team comprised of Static, Blue Beetle, the Damian Wayne Robin, the Stephanie Brown Batgirl, Miss Martian and the Iris West Impulse (with hopes to include Aqualad). The pinnacle of Kara's evolution would have had Iris running away in a panic and Kara stopping her, convincing her to keep going. Most of the team, minus Kara, would have ended up getting captured and, with advice from Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, would have made a second team to rescue them. The story would have concluded with the dance party of the Flyover app's premiere, with one scene showing Iris dragging Damian out onto the dance floor. The Jaime/Damian/M'gann team (but none of the others) made it into James Peaty's run, but the details of the storyline were completely altered, along with Alex's true identity (Kryptonian-Dubbilex hybrid clone), it wouldn't be until the Young Justice cartoon that Static, Blue Beetle, Stephanie (as her Spoiler identity), and Miss Martian would become members of the Young Justice, with Stephanie also added as a reserve member of the team in their relaunch under Brian Michael Bendis.
A spin-off called "Titans L.A." was planned, but was rejected by higher-ups. It would have involved Terra II trying to find out the secret of her past.
Jay Faerber had pitched a story where Slizzath, nemesis of Tempest, had resurrected all the dead Titans as an army to fight the current team. In a way, the idea of zombie Titans sort of came to pass in the Teen Titans storyline Life and Death, as well as in Blackest Night. Another rejected story by Faerber included Mr. Jupiter being killed off, with the Titans having to solve the mystery of his murder.
Barry Kitson had wished to do more with specific characters like Bumblebee, Lilith, Terra II, and Risk, had the series not been cancelled. Although he has never gone into too many details, he did state that Lilith would have stopped using the Omen codename.
Faerber had hoped for Dolphin to join the Titans team and become a more active character. After Tom Peyer became the writer towards the end of the series, Dolphin and Tempest were written out, with Dolphin ordering her husband to quit the Titans.
The villain Epsilon was originally meant to be a serial killer that would hop dimensions to murder heroes. After the editors shot it down, Jay Faerber suggested that it would be a grown-up Danny Chase, resurrected by Slizzath and made into a darker and edgier villain. This was meant to lead into the plotline of Slizzath creating his army, but after Andrew Helfer came on as editor, these plans were scrapped.
The majority of Jay Faerber's plans for the series were all pretty much ruined due to Andrew Helfer's insistence on Faerber focusing on the DEOrphans.
Epsilon was initially supposed to be a serial killer of superheroes jumping from dimension to dimension, and was being tracked down by the Kingdom Come Titans. Another ideas was for Epsilon to be an adult version of Danny Chase.
Arsenal was going to get a job testing weapons for Kord Industries and be dating agent Dakota Jamison, much to Lian's unhappiness due to her preference for Troia.
Static was originally going to have been part of the team as one of the main characters, as he was coming off of the popular Static Shock TV show at the time. Geoff Johns had to scrap this plan when it turned out that DC didn't actually own the rights to the character. The merge between Milestone and DC in 2008 gave DC the rights to its heroes, including Static, allowing him to join the team in 2009.
Geoff Johns had originally wanted his Titans team to fight the Scarecrow in an early arc, but the Batman office would not allow for it. Blackfire was also intended to appear at some point during his run, but Infinite Crisis and Starfire's departure for the Outsiders caused her to be shelved (although Mike McKone's design did eventually get used in Blackfire's later appearances). Years later, Scarecrow would finally confront the Titans in the third season of Titans (2018).
Johns had wanted to include Supergirl in the "One Year Later" roster, but since she was going a Darker and Edgier route at the time and Johns wanted a " naïve, fun alien chick", Miss Martian was created as a substitute. Kara finally joined the team in 2007.
Argent was considered as the first to die in Superboy-Prime's massacre, but was spared due to one of the editors favoring her and Pantha wound up dying instead.
Had Superboy not died in Infinite Crisis, Johns' plan for the next story arc would have involved him regaining his confidence to fend off the "Titans of Tomorrow", who would find a way to attack the present timeline. Sean McKeever slightly reused the idea of the future Titans' return, although in a much different type of story (to accommodate for both Superboy and Kid Flash's deaths).
Johns had set up threads for the then-new Aquagirl to join the team, but had to nix the plan due to the One Year Later status quo in Aquaman. Static was also promised for the team, but again, licensing complications with Milestone Comics led to his arrival also being delayed until long after Johns had left the title.
Rob Liefeld's two-issue filler arc with Gail Simone was meant to get his foot in the door at DC. There were plans for Liefeld to do a new Titans East series to help expand the franchise, as well as a possible Teen Titans-based limited series, but the deal fell apart due to tension behind the scenes. Liefeld ended up walking away from DC, and had some unkind things to say about the company.
Issue 47 was originally pitched as a story where Duela Dent got to officially join the volume 3 team, after deciding to stick with them after the "Titans East" arc. As Duela wound up slated for death in Countdown, the issue was rewritten as a tie-in and focused on the Titans holding her funeral. Her revival as a villain in the New 52 has made it harder for her to come back to the team.
Sean McKeever had intended to reveal that the villain Sun Girl was pregnant with Inertia's child, upon which she'd appeal to Bart Allen (Kid Flash) and the other Titans for help. Editorial rejected the idea, and it only got as far as her pregnant silhouette being shown in a montage of "possible future" events.
McKeeverrecently revealed more details of his plans which were derailed thanks to editorial.
When he included Fever during the Terror Titans arc, he wanted to have her join the Titans. Instead, he was told to kill Fever off and had to pick Aquagirl instead, mentioning the irony that wanting Fever in the Teen Titans got her killed.
As mentioned below, there was plans to revive Kid Devil after he was killed in Bryan Miller's run. McKeever also had the idea of Eddie going to Hell and becoming a villain for a while before being redeemed. In the rejected story pitch, the demon Blaze would have revived him and used him as her slave, until he'd be freed by the Titans. Unfortunately, Dan Didio nixed it, citing Eddie's death as the first example of "dead means dead" for the DC Universe. (which of course, OBVIOUSLY really stuck long)
McKeever argued to spare Wendy and have her become a villain after Marvin's death, but she was crippled anyway and then made into Calculator's daughter.
Peter Milligan's version of Infinity Inc. had absolutely nothing to do with the Terror Titans miniseries, until Sean learned halfway through writing it that the end of Milligan's series announced it would tie into Terror Titans.
JT Krul's run was supposed to feature the new Aqualad from Young Justice (2010) joining the team, as well as the Teen Titans facing off against Deathstroke's new team of Anti-Hero Titans. Both of these plot threads were hinted at in Krul's first issue, but were abandoned when his run was Cut Short. Kaldur would later finally join the Teen Titans team led by Damian Wayne in DC Rebirth.
Eric Wallace had several storylines cut as a result of Titans being rushed due to Flashpoint. He intended to follow up on Cinder finding child molester Nursery Cryme after she'd accidentally set him free, and there were obvious implications that metahuman Allegra Garcia was going to join the team or at least meet Deathstroke's team again.
The New 52 reboot ended some stories before they could start. For instance, the finale of the Titans series hinted at Red Arrow and Jericho rebuilding the team... only for the title to end and an entirely new continuity to start the next month.
The reboot of the title was originally not going to be a reboot at all. The initial pitch was that the Titans would've disbanded the team following their battle with the Legion of Doom, only to be forced to bring the group back together after several of their former teammates were kidnapped by the N.O.W.H.E.R.E organization. This explains the inclusion of Solstice, who was a very recent character at the time and yet still made the cut over a number of more popular characters associated with the team.
Likewise, the New 52 Superboy would've been a continuation of the previous continuity, with the new status quo (Superboy working for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. as an adversary of the Titans) justified via a mindwipe and Brainwashing.
Cheshire was originally going to appear as a supporting character in Grifter. When this plan fell through, Cheshire's New 52 design was reused for a new character named Niko.
Scott Lobdell has said that Jackson Hyde was supposed be part of his new Teen Titans line-up, but that the idea was axed at the last minute due to the character being fleshed out in another title (probably referring to Johns's Aquaman run). If so, this would be a lie since Jackson wouldn't appear in the mainline comics again until DC Rebirth.
Miss Martian, Wonder Girl and Bunker were considered as part of the team, but ended up being passed over for various reasons. Miss Martian would wind up on Titans Rebirth instead, as their liaison with the Justice League, while Bunker would only finally join the team when it joined Teen Titans Academy.
Jonboy Meyers designed a new, female Speedy for the team, with a costume inspired by the Red Arrow suit from Young Justice (2010). The character was ultimately shelved for being too similar to Emiko Queen from the Green Arrow books, and when Damian's Teen Titans team had a shift in its roster, Emiko herself was among the new heroes added to the team.
, but did not come to pass. Both Nightwing and Starfire would have been heavily redesigned in their costumes and overall look. Jonathan Peterson's departure for Image Comics, as well as the Batman editor issues, played a part in the series falling through.