What Could Have Been / Lost

• Damon Lindelof disclosed in 2020 that his original plan for the series was that it would consist of just three seasons, and that all of the show's mysteries would be solved by the end of the run. However, when the show proved to be a smash hit, ABC demanded that Lindelof and Carlton Cuse expand the number of seasons (suggesting as many as ten at one point) and wouldn't budge from the position until the third season, at which point Lindelof and Cuse managed to negotiate the number down to six.
• The writers had wildly different plans for many of the central characters. The most famous of these is the by now well-known early plan to have Jack killed by the monster in the middle of the pilot episode. Accordingly, Jack was to be played by a "name" actor (Michael Keaton was the top choice) so he could be a Decoy Protagonist - the ending of the first episode had Jack being revealed dead atop a tree. In the finished pilot episode, the victim was instead the pilot of the plane, played by Greg Grunberg.
• Had Jack been killed off as intended, the main character would have been Kate – except that her character was originally planned to be much more similar to Rose, including having a husband who was seated in the tail section of the plane.
• Casting footage on the first season DVD shows just how differently the show might have evolved, with Matthew Fox reading as a much slicker version of Sawyer, Yunjin Kim (Sun) reading for Kate, and multiple mentions of Kate's husband being in the tail section.
• Originally, Charlie was to be an older rock musician, having had great success in the 1980s, and who at present became addicted to heroin. John Hannah was considered for the role. However, the showrunners enjoyed the Dominic Monaghan's audition as Sawyer and decided to hire him as Charlie, rewriting the character for him to be younger and a recent one-hit wonder burnout.
• The original name of Charlie's band was "The Petting Zoo". This had to be changed, however, when it transpired that there really is a band called The Petting Zoo.
• Jon Hamm auditioned for Jack.
• Forest Whitaker was offered the role of Sawyer, but he was busy directing First Daughter.
• The original mythology was going to be much more sci-fi oriented.
• The series bible reveals that Boone was originally planned to be schizophrenic with a whole subplot dedicated to the fact that he ran out of his meds, leading to him becoming an active danger to the rest of the group. This idea was scrapped later on, although the medicine angle still made it in the show through Shannon's asthma.
• In the original drafts for season one, Boone was not with Locke when he discovered the Hatch; it was originally two new characters named Arthur and Sullivan. When it was decided to have a main character accompany Locke instead, the writers chose Boone, which has been described as the genesis for his eventual death later in the season.
• In the event that the show be Cut Short partway through the first season, the plan was to reveal the island to be in The Bermuda Triangle.
• In original drafts for the show, Rousseau's team of scientists were studying time. The network told the writers not to include it in the show, in case the viewers would think it too science fiction and stop watching.
• Jennifer Jason Leigh was considered for Libby, but it never got past the producers asking her.
• Lance Reddick was the writers' choice for playing Eko, but he couldn't get time off The Wire. Then they invited Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje for liking him as Simon Adebisi in Oz, who also led to a change in characterization to what they admitted was a cross between Adebisi and the "passive priest" originally written. Akinnuoye-Agbaje also made the original name choice "Emeka" to the more Nigerian Eko.
• Libby's backstory and the specifics behind how she ended up in Santa Rosa were intended to be revealed through other characters' flashbacks after she was killed off, but producers were unable to convince Cynthia Watros to return to the show.
• Nikki and Paulo were intended to become major characters. Specifically, "Exposé" was planned to be solely Nikki-centric and follow her time on the show... and only reveal at the end that the absurd stripper plot was part of a show.
• The original idea for the Others was that they would be a group of feral jungle dwellers. This was later changed when they were re-imagined as technically advanced and sophisticated people, who only use a disguise of feral jungle dwellers to mislead new arrivals on the Island.
• Charlotte was originally meant to be an American and the role was offered to Kristen Bell, but she rejected it for a role on Heroes. So it was changed when British actress Rebecca Mader was cast. This has lead to a theory held by some that she was meant to be revealed as Annie (given her link to DHARMA), but since Annie was American this was quietly dropped later on.
• Mr Eko was meant to be one of the most important characters on the show, with a arc that would cover the rest of the series. Then the actor left. Sayid's season 5 and 6 arc was intended for Eko, although that leaves the question as to what Sayid's original storyline would have been.
• Daniel, Charlotte and Miles were originally planned as guest stars who would last only eight episodes. Thanks to how awesomely "Confirmed Dead" turned out, they were promoted to regulars for the rest of season 4 and beyond; while Charlotte was killed off early in season 5 and Daniel was killed off at the end of the season, Miles remained until the end and Frank made the jump to regular for season 6.
• Matthew Abaddon would be much more important to the plot, but Lance Reddick was busy with the production of Fringe and the showrunners decided to kill his character earlier than anticipated.
• There was a planned subplot, revealed at Comic Con, that had the DHARMA researchers know that a Stable Time Loop was going on, and that they would perish. It was dropped, due to time constraints and new writers.
• Caesar was meant to have a regular, and fairly major, role in the final season. But the actor turned down more Lost in favor of GI Joe, so Caesar's abrupt death stuck and his character became an unintentional red herring.
• After the idea of the reset was introduced, the producers considered season 6 both featuring no reset/alternate timeline of any kind, or a complete reset. After deciding both approaches were deficient, they decided to do both. In fact, they decided to both "do both" and "not do both" by having the alternate timeline in fact be a waiting room for the afterlife rather than an actual alternate timeline, while still having it take place in a what-if-the-plane-never-crashed scenario.
• Ilana was meant to have a big part in the final season-in fact, she was going to be Jacob's daughter! But this was cut and scenes were re-filmed when they decided they didn't have enough time to fit it into the show. This explains her promotion to regular, despite not having any development or much importance outside of "Dr Linus" and her abrupt death and absence from the finale.
• The climactic battle in the series finale was going to happen during a volcanic eruption, which was planned early enough for a passing mention of volcanic activity in Season 3. ABC ultimately refused to okay the budget for it, which Lindelof and Cuse quickly realized was a good thing as the lava battle from Revenge of the Sith would be fresh in everyone's minds and they never could have measured up to it.
• Mr. Eko was originally supposed to appear in the series' finale, but a deal could not be worked out.
• "Adrift" was originally supposed to be a Sawyer-centric episode with flashbacks to a con job he pulled. Jolene Blalock was cast and actually shot a few scenes before the writers decided they just weren't working. The episode was quickly reworked to focus on Michael and his attempts to keep Walt in his life instead.

---