Star vs. the Forces of Evil has a lot of storylines that were taken out.
Early Logo from the pilot.
- The show was originally pitched to Cartoon Network's Cartoonstitute initiative, as well as Nickelodeon.
- In earlier conceptual versions of the series, Star was a grade schooler who did not have magic powers, but believed she did. Despite not being magical, this iteration of Star solved problems by virtue of being resourceful and determined. Minutes before pitching the series to Disney, an executive asked Daron Nefcy to make Star a teenager and give her real magic powers, with Nefcy adding the "princess from another dimension" aspect in the weeks following the pitch session.
- Marco was originally going to be named Sol, be obsessed with shows like Dragon Ball Z, and be Star's rival instead of her best friend. While most of these elements were dropped early on, the name remained as late as the creation of the pilot episode.
- Nefcy wanted Pony Head's design to look like she was "drooling, and blood dripping out of the neck – but then really sparkly and really big eyes." She was also originally going to be an imaginary friend prior to actual magic becoming a part of the show's concept.
- Mina Loveberry was originally going to be an even more overt reference to Sailor Moon. In particular, her theme music was initially written as a close enough copy that Disney's legal department required it to be changed.
- This
Concept Art for "Hungry Larry" shows some alternative costumes for Marco and Mrs. Diaz, and reveals Jackie was going to make an appearance in the episode wearing a mermaid costume.note - According to this video, during the early stages of development, Grey DeLisle, Queen Moon and Jackie's voice actress, was one of the candidates for Star herself.
- Nefcy posted a picture she drew of Jackie being possessed, an idea for an episode that was ultimately scrapped.
- Season 4 hadn't been greenlit when the Season 3 finale, "Conquer", was written. Nefcy admitted in an interview that the cliffhanger ending with Eclipsa and Globgor was written out of cockiness, and if the series didn't get renewed, she would have argued for one more half-hour episode to wrap things up.
- According to a Reddit AMA held with Nefcy and the show's writers after its conclusion, there were numerous attempts to write a follow-up episode to Season 1's "Monster Arm", but they couldn't figure out a satisfying story. According to Nefcy, the Monster Arm is more than likely still in Marco despite the destruction of magic and will reemerge one day, just not in the show itself.
- An episode called "Red Riding Hoodie" was planned, but scrapped when the writers couldn't get the idea to work. It would have involved an evil wolf hypnotizing Marco into re-enacting the story of "Little Red Riding Hood", while Star tried to figure out what was happening. All that remains of it is a single concept drawing.
- Dave Lucitor, Tom's humanoid father, was originally going to make an appearance in Season 1 as an anger demon. Both Tom and Dave were originally going to have an abusive father-son relationship.
