Danny Phantom
What Could Have Been in this series.
One of the first ever sketch of Danny Phantom, And it's asking the big questions.
- The series was conceived as being called Danny Phantom and the Specter Detectors, and would have been very different than the final product.
- Danny was supposed to be a teenaged and otherwise normal Ghostbuster on a motorcycle with a pet owl and a psychic link to Sam. Then the idea was tweaked into what it is now.
- The motorcycle ghost idea eventually became Johnny 13.
- The pet owl was going to be named Spooky, and would help Danny find ghosts. But Harry Potter (particularly the films) was getting big at the time and Harry already had a pet owl, so the idea was scrapped.
- Sam and Danny were originally meant to share a psychic connection before Butch Hartman decided against it, saying only Danny should have the special powers and because it would have made the two of them seem too developed for a show that was just starting. Back when Nick.com first launched the Danny Phantom pages with character profiles, Sam's page even mentioned this psychic connection, despite it not appearing in the show.
- Butch Hartman originally wanted Danny to be voiced by an actual 14-year-old but couldn't find anybody who sounded "heroic" enough, so David Kaufman was cast.
- This could apply to the entire third season, as Steve Marmel allegedly wanted to get Darker and Edgier, following along the lines of "The Ultimate Enemy". There was even a fan project on imagining what it would be like, only it never got off the ground because they couldn't get details from Mr. Marmel. Marmel won't comment on what Season 3 was going to be about or why he was let go, mostly out of respect for his former partner Hartman.
- According to Word of God, Danielle was meant to be revealed to the Fenton family and become Danny's little sister. Yet another plotline that was abandoned when the series was abruptly canceled.
- The series was originally meant to end with a final battle between Danny and Dark Danny. One could argue it would have made a greater series finale than Phantom Planet. The Danny vs. Dark Danny rematch eventually happened in the graphic novel continuation A Glitch in Time.
- Vlad was originally intended to be a vampire, hence why his ghostly form heavily resembles one.
- According to writer Steve Marmel, an original Running Gag would be that Vlad's manor would blow up every time.
- The show had a vastly different intro, being sung rather than rapped. The rhythm was the same but the lyrics were not. You can watch that original intro here
. There's also a third version of the intro according to composer Guy Moon, one that has yet to be seen by the public. - Some of Danny's original first names include Kenny and Davie.
- A planned toyline was cancelled due to the show's sudden cancellation.
- The Licensed Game adaptation of "The Ultimate Enemy" was released exclusively for Game Boy Advance, but was planned to also have ports for Nintendo DS, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows and PSP that never saw the light of day.
- The video game tie-in to "Urban Jungle" was similarly also intended to be released on multiple systems, but was ultimately released exclusively on Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
- According to an interview with Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Jazz was originally written to hide how smart she was and would prefer to be seen as a vapid cheerleader.
