Trivia / Ultraman: Towards the Future

• Actor Allusion: In the Japanese dub, Akiji Kobayashi, the man who played the original Ultraman's Captain Muramatsu voices this series' team leader, Arthur Grant.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The life support machine Jean is placed in after being infected by Gudis cells appears to be a hypersleep chamber from Alien.
  • Kilazee's design is based on an unused design◊ of the Godzilla kaiju Bagan. Gerukadon also bears some resemblance to another unused design◊, but no confirmation has been made if it was indeed a recycled concept.
• Recursive Import: While Australia-made and shown briefly on American TV, it was later shown on Japanese airwaves under the title Ultraman Great (which is also the Japanese name for the hero to differentiate him from the original Ultraman).
• Recycled Script:
  • "The Child's Dream" is loosely based on "Terror on Route 87" from the original Ultraman, where a young boy's imagination combined with cosmic rays revives a flying monster (Hydra, Gerukadon) based on the child's deceased pet (parrot, lizard). Both episodes contain scenes in amusement parks, and ends with the kaiju in question spared by Ultraman before taking flight with it's child owner on it's back.
  • "Blast from the Past" has it's plot reworked from "Battle! Ace vs. Hideki Goh!" back in Ultraman Ace, beginning with a massive kaiju attack where the Ultra of the show tries to stop, but is interrupted when a character who was previously thought to be dead (Stanley Haggard / Hideki Go) appears and effortlessly banishes the monster. Turns out, the returning deceased character is an imposter, who later kidnaps one of the Ultra's ally leading to a final stand-off, before the climactic Ultra-vs-kaiju battle.
• Sequel in Another Medium: While the show itself lasts for merely 13 scant episodes, there is a five-issue comic sequel, Ultraman Great, released by Nemesis Comics in 1994, where the now host-less Ultraman Great returns to earth. Said comic is much Darker and Edgier compared to the TV series, with a post-apocalyptic setting and plots ranging from earth suffering a Robot War to Gudis reviving in a far stronger form that absolutely decimates the galaxy and a human thug selling his humanity to Gudis in order to help the monster Take Over the World.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tohl Narita, who designed the original Ultraman was initially approached to design the suits for this series, and designed a black and gold Ultraman titled "Ultraman Divine Change" as the series' protagonist; however, as Narita required 30% copyright fees for his designs to be used, negotiations fell through and this design was scrapped before Shin Ultraman brought it back as Zoffy's design for the film.
  • Apparently, there were plans for a Season 2 that would have featured a number of returning monsters, including a reappearance from Ryugulo and the appearances of several monsters from the Japanese shows, such as the Baltans. However, these were halted by the failure of Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero.
  • A movie idea thrown around for a bit would've had Great visiting Japan and doing battle with a super powerful threat, potentially with the original Ultras appearing as well.
  • UF-0's episode was originally to star a fully mechanical transforming robot called ROBOM. See concept art here.
  • Early on the action sequences in the show were to be performed via rubber puppets, with test footage being done of a fight between Great and Gudis. The idea was passed in favor of traditional suit work due to the restrictions this style ended up presenting. That said, footage from the puppet test wound up being used in the first episode for some brief shots.
  • Deganja was originally meant to be a Mix-and-Match Critter made from animals killed by the highway◊.
  • Super Gudis was originally meant to be a faceless creature.

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