History WhatCouldHaveBeen / DragonBall

* Statements by Toriyama imply Pan was supposed to go Super Saiyan at some point, but he was unable to think of how it would work and so he never drew a design for her. If she had been able to, she would have been able to use some kind of form or power unique to her as a Super Saiyan.

* Creator/TravisWillingham saw ''DBZ'' while in college and, having met Laura Bailey in another job, desperately begged her to try and get him on the show in some role. She claimed that she genuinely forgot to put his name forward and that she didn't deliberately ignore the request, but by the time Travis joined Funimation the show had long since ended. To make matters more amusing, the two would go on to work together and get married. Travis ''would'' get to voice some extra characters in the Ultimate Uncut redub of the Saiyan and Namek Sagas years later plus some extras in ''GT'' and ''Broly - Second Coming''.

* Androids 19 and 20 were originally meant to be the {{Big Bad}}s of the Android saga. But almost immediately following the release of their introductory chapter, Toriyama's former editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, got in touch with him just to basically laugh at him for making the new and much-hyped villains be a fatso and an old geezer. Which resulted in Toriyama creating Androids 17 and 18... which Torishima ''also'' didn't like on account of being brats, prompting Toriyama to create Cell... Which his then-current editor, Yuu Kondou, didn't like the design of, making him push Toriyama into giving Cell the ability to transform... However, Kondou thought Cell's second form just looked moronic, so he pressed Toriyama into quickly unveiling Cell's cooler, perfect form.

[[caption-width-right:350:Early designs of Bulma, Goku, and Oolong.]]

* Gohan was slated to become the protagonist after the Cell Saga. However, Toriyama later decided against it, believing he wasn't fit for the role. There were ''several'' instances where the story could have been drastically different. [[http://www.kanzenshuu.com/intended-end/ This page]] goes into more details about what could have been.
* Gogeta was originally supposed to be in the manga and the anime, but because the writers behind ''[[Anime/DragonBallZFusionReborn Fusion Reborn]]'' came up with the concept before he could unveil it, Toriyama came up with Vegito instead. Gogeta would later make a TV appearance in ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. Gogeta would later make his debut in a Toriyama-written piece of media in ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly''.

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[[caption-width-right:250:No, not Manga/{{Dragon|Ball}} ''[[Manga/DragonBall Ball]]'', Dragon ''Boy,'' silly.]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:Rough sketches of Belmod and Marcarita's rejected characterization]]

* Creator/LindaYoung was supposed to return as Frieza for ''Kai'', and even recorded his brief laugh in Episode 1, but for unknown reasons, the role was recast with Creator/ChrisAyres. Young kept voicing Fortune Teller Baba though.

* In [=FUNimation=]'s dub, Creator/LauraBailey auditioned for Android 18 before Meredith [=McCoy=], a good friend of hers, got the role instead. Laura later beat out Meredith to voice Kid Trunks and Kid Chi-Chi, and has since gone on to a very, very successful voice-acting career. Also, Creator/SeanSchemmel says he auditioned for Captain Ginyu and Piccolo, and was surprised when he was cast as Goku because he felt that Ginyu was his strongest audition. Stephanie Nadolny also says she auditioned for Bulma, Frieza, Chiaotzu, Android 18, Videl, and Goten at different points, but admits that the director thought her voice was too distinctive to voice anyone other than Kid Goku and Gohan. Tiffany Vollmer (Bulma) also says she auditioned for Frieza and Chiaotzu. Also, at one time, [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2000-08-17/freddie-prinze-jr-may-do-dbz-voice FUNimation was in talks with Freddie Prinze Jr]] about voicing Teen Gohan.

* Toppo's role at the beginning of the Universe Survival arc was initially planned for Jiren, given that he appears in the preview trailer of that arc rather than Toppo and that his name was accidentally left unchanged by ''Shounen Jump'' when they released summary for episode 82. An interview expanded on this stating Jiren was meant to have Toppo's personality, but this was rejected by Toriyama.

* In [=FUNimation=]'s dub, Creator/LauraBailey auditioned for Android 18 before Meredith [=McCoy=], a good friend of hers, got the role instead. Laura later beat out Meredith to voice Kid Trunks and Kid Chi-Chi, and has since gone on to a very, very successful voice acting career. Also, Creator/SeanSchemmel says he auditioned for Captain Ginyu and Piccolo, and was surprised when he was cast as Goku because he felt that Ginyu was his strongest audition. Stephanie Nadolny also says she auditioned for Bulma, Frieza, Chiaotzu, Android 18, Videl, and Goten at different points, but admits that the director thought her voice was too distinctive to voice anyone other than Kid Goku and Gohan. Tiffany Vollmer (Bulma) also says she auditioned for Frieza and Chiaotzu. Also, at one time, [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2000-08-17/freddie-prinze-jr-may-do-dbz-voice FUNimation was in talks with Freddie Prinze Jr]] about voicing Teen Gohan.

* Creator/TravisWillingham saw ''DBZ'' while in college and, having met Laura Bailey in another job, desperately begged her to try and get him on the show in some role. She claimed that she genuinely forgot to put his name forward and that she didn't deliberately ignore the request, but by the time Travis joined Funimation the show had long since ended. To make matters more amusing, the two would go on to work together and get married.

** The Mexican dubbing company Video Doblajes would later make a longer-lived Spanish dub partially based in Harmony Gold's dub, known as "'''Zero y el Dragón Mágico'''" (Zero and the Magical Dragon) which lasted for 60 episodes and the merged movie, translating from the original Japanese once they advanced past HG's dub. The dub ended up being cancelled when the director quit after refusing to undo the {{Dub Name Change}}s, which were originally ordered by VD before realizing the fans in Europe used the original names. The VD dub, made between 1992 and 1994, predates Cloverway's better known 1997-1999 dub, which would succeed where the first dub failed and bring the Dragon Ball franchise to Latin America, where it remains popular to this day.

* Harmony Gold had done an obscure and short-lived English dub of the ''Manga/DragonBall'' anime between 1986 and 1989, with many {{Dub Name Change}}s; Goku was named [[MyHeroZero Zero]], Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo... Only the first five episodes (and the first and third movies, merged into a single 80-main film) were dubbed, and the project was axed when test markets failed to hold an audience.

* In [=FUNimation=]'s dub, Creator/LauraBailey auditioned for Android 18 before Meredith [=McCoy=], a good friend of hers, got the role instead. Laura later beat out Meredith to voice Kid Trunks and Kid Chi-Chi, and has since gone on to a very, very successful voice acting career. Also, Creator/SeanSchemmel says he auditioned for Captain Ginyu and Piccolo, and was surprised when he was cast as Goku because he felt that Ginyu was his strongest audition. Stephanie Nadolny also says she auditioned for Bulma, Frieza, Chiaotzu, Android 18, Videl, and Goten at different points, but admits that the director thought her voice was too distinctive to voice anyone other than Kid Goku and Gohan. Also, at one time, [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2000-08-17/freddie-prinze-jr-may-do-dbz-voice FUNimation was in talks with Freddie Prinze Jr]] about voicing Teen Gohan.

** While the scripts weren't as faithful as ''GT'', and it was afflicted with censorship baked in from the European video masters they were given, this cast would also go on to dub the original ''Dragon Ball'' series afterwards. Naturally, if Ken Morrison hadn't moved the work to Calgary, we would have got the Vancouver cast dubbing this too.

* AB Groupe had the rights to distribute the Ocean and Blue Water dubs on [=DVD=] in the UK. But after how poorly their [=DVDs=] of the "Big Green" dubbed movies sold, they never bothered to put out any further home video of ''Dragon Ball'' in the UK. [[note]]It's a common misconception that AB Groupe actually produced the Canadian dubs. It's worth noting that AB only distributed them, in European territories. However, since they were working with the company actually producing these dubs, Westwood media, AB provided the video masters for ''Dragon Ball'', ''GT'', and the last few episodes of ''Z'', which AB had on-hand from the fact they were behind the French dubbing and distribution of the franchise.[[/note]]
* Kix UK were assumed by many to be airing Ocean's dub of Anime/DragonBallZKai, but instead they aired Funimation's. Ocean's dub was ready by then. Insiders have claimed that Funimation were, and are, trying to stop the competing dub from airing, leading some insiders to go as far as to say "This dub will never air."
** As it stands, Ocean's dub of ''Kai'' has indeed yet to air, though a company in Canada called Wow Unlimited have given every indication that they're acquiring the dub to air when they get their TV channel up and running... Which hasn't happened yet. And they have no ETA when it might happen, because starting up a new TV channel in the current climate is very difficult, and very expensive. So, we can only wait and hope.

* There were originally plans to continue ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' with multiple sequels that would have adapted elements from the Saiyan Saga onwards. However, all plans were scrapped after the film's poor performance with auidences and critics. And with Disney owning 20th Century Fox and little-to-nothing known regarding Fox's ownership of rights for live-action DB films, the future of the franchise in live-action is unknown.

*** This would have been especially interesting since Scott [=McNeil=] was recording a dub of Kai for Ocean at the same time as Funimation was doing theirs, so if Funimation could have spared the money to hire him, he could have dubbed Kai twice! [[note]]Though, since Funimation were already working with Ocean in the form of buying their TV edit to save costs producing their own, it's possible they would have reached some arrangement such that Scott could record both dubs' lines at the same time.[[/note]]

** Even when Funimation would redub those first three ''Z'' movies in-house, they made various changes to Pioneer's script for the first two movies that detracted from the accuracy, the acting was worse, and the third movie instead had its script based on a dub they produced with Saban for TV, which was just as inaccurate as the rest of their work from that period. And yet, Funimation still refuse to include the uncut Pioneer dubs on the modern [=DVD/Blu-ray=] releases of the first three movies.

* Toriyama didn't plan on Goku being an alien. His Great Ape transformation was supposed to be something like that of a werewolf and chalk it up to OurWerebeastsAreDifferent, and a nod to ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''. He also didn't plan Piccolo as being an alien either.[[note]]Funnily enough, the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball calls King Piccolo an extra-terrestrial in a closing narration of one of the episodes, in a point before Toriyama decided that Piccolo was an alien, due to the fact Funimation dubbed these epsiodes while they were dubbing the Cell saga and thus knew about this in advance.[[/note]]

* The script Toriyama originally wrote for ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' would have resulted in a three-hour movie, but the final product cut it down.

* Harmony Gold had done an obscure and short-lived English dub of the ''Manga/DragonBall'' anime between 1986 and 1989, with many {{Dub Name Change}}s; Goku was named [[MyHeroZero Zero]], Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo... Only the first five episodes (and the first and third movies) were dubbed, and the project was axed when test markets failed to hold an audience.
** Bandai would later make a longer-lived Spanish dub partially based in Harmony Gold's dub, known as "'''Zero y el Dragón Magico'''" (Zero and the Magical Dragon) which lasted for 60 episodes, translating from the original Japanese once they advanced past HG's dub. The Bandai dub, made between 1993 and 1994 predates Cloverway's better known 1997-1999 dub, which would succeed where the Bandai dub failed and bring the Dragon Ball franchise to Latin America, where it remains popular to this day.

* Harmony Gold had done an obscure and short-lived English dub of the ''Manga/DragonBall'' anime in the late 80s, with many {{Dub Name Change}}s; Goku was named [[MyHeroZero Zero]], Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo... Only the first five episodes (and the first two movies) were dubbed, and the project was axed when test markets failed to hold an audience.

* Harmony Gold had done an obscure and short-lived English dub of the ''Manga/DragonBall'' anime in the late 80s, with many {{Dub Name Change}}s; Goku was named [[MyHeroZero Zero]], Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo... Only the first five episodes (and the first two movies) were dubbed, and the project was axed when test markets failed to hold an audience. Bandai would later make a longer-lived Spanish dub partially based in Harmony Gold's dub, known as ''Zero y el Dragón Magico'', which lasted for 60 episodes, translating from the original Japanese once they advanced past HG's dub. Both dubs were made in the late 80's and the latter predates Cloverway's 1997 dub, which would succeed where the Bandai dub failed.

* Harmony Gold had done an obscure and short-lived English dub of the ''Manga/DragonBall'' anime in the late 80s, with many {{Dub Name Change}}s; Goku was named [[MyHeroZero Zero]], Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo... Only the first five episodes (and the first two movies) were dubbed, and the project was axed when test markets failed to hold an audience.

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