This refers to whenever story elements are cut from an original work, only to come back when it gets popular enough for an adaptation. Reasons for the restoration include the creators being given more funding or creative freedom following the original work's popularity. Alternatively, societal differences may allow the changes if the original work comes from a different time period or culture, or special effects may have advanced enough to allow for ideas that were removed from the original work due to technological limitations to be included in the remake.
Official tie-in novelizations often if not always feature scenes and other content that their source material's final cut left on the cutting room floor, due to the novelizations being written concurrently with the source's pre-release production when the script and/or the theatrical cut haven't been completely finalized.
See also Refitted for Sequel, Early Draft Tie-In, and What Could Have Been. If the adaptation is a piece of fan content, this may overlap with Fan-Preferred Cut Content.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Bleach: The "Forest of Menos" arc, including the Shinigami Ashido Kanō (who'd been stranded in Hueco Mundo while he and his team pursued a band of Hollows), was originally planned to be in the manga. It had to be cut for time but was featured in the anime adaptation.
- The End of Evangelion was originally meant to include a live-action segment in which Shinji, Misato, Rei, and other characters would live a normal life, however this was cut for unknown reasons. Evangelion 3.0+1.0 returns to this concept with its ending, showing the Evangelion pilots on a train station after Mari wishes for Evangelions to not have existed in the first place.
- Mazinger Z: During the creation of the titular robot, Go Nagai initially created a prototype version called Energer Z, which was controlled by a motorcycle. However, Go decided not to use this as he was afraid of ripping off Kamen Rider. Energer Z would finally get used in Shin Mazinger as a prototype for Mazinger Z.
- MSV: Mobile Suit Variations was designed to be this. The original release of the works were based around either Mobile Suits that were cut from the original Mobile Suit Gundam when the anime was Cut Short or an abandoned series. Many of the designs would see the light of day in later Gundam anime.
- One Piece: The story behind Usopp's goggles was initially intended to be shown in the Manga, but the chapter was scrapped as Eiichiro Oda wanted the Straw Hats to enter the Grand Line on the 100th chapter. The anime didn't have that restriction, so the story of how Usopp got his goggles is shown there.
- Sailor Moon has a particularly infamous chapter title page depicting the four Inner Guardians paired with the Shitennou, the implication being that they were lovers in their past life just like Usagi and Mamoru. In the manga proper, this didn't go beyond Jadeite finding Rei attractive; the dubiously canonical pilot-turned-prequel Codename: Sailor V eventually confirmed the Venus/Kunzite pairing, but not the rest. The stage musicals, on the other hand, took the idea and ran with it, with nearly every show that included the Dark Kingdom villains featuring the pairings. Over two decades after the image was published, a Truer to the Text anime adaptation Sailor Moon Crystal altered the plot just enough to briefly confirm the relationships on-screen.
Comic Books
- The Final Destination tie-in comic Final Destination: Spring Break has a major fire at a hotel as the opening disaster. This hearkens back to the earlier drafts of Final Destination 2 which took heavy inspiration from the 1980 MGM Grand incident before the filmmakers decided, surprisingly late in the process, that they wanted something more action-packed and came up with the massive highway accident we all know and love.
- The planned third season for Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) was going to reveal that Mobius was Earth All Along, with animals gaining sentience after a nuclear war wiped out humanity. Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) would reused this plot-point for its "Sonic Adventure 2.5" storyline, but with different outcomes such as humanity being wiped out by Gene Bombs from an alien race called the Xorda, which also had the side effect of animals being the new dominant species of the planet.
- Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was pitched by its writer Tom King as a crossover between Supergirl and Lobo, only for Lobo to be cut to focus more on Kara. In Supergirl, which will adapt the series, Lobo will be included in the film.
- Wings of Fire: The Graphic Novel: The Dragonet Prophecy begins with a scene of Clay hatching and "attacking" the other eggs. This was based on the prologue of an earlier draft of the original book (which was later included as a bonus in the limited edition), which was replaced by a completely different scene of Hvitur trying to steal the SkyWing egg in the final version.
Fan Works
- Abraxas (MonsterVerse): The content of a scene that was shot for the source material's Godzilla movie but ultimately left out of the final cut, namely Drs. Ishirō Serizawa and Vivienne Graham interacting with Filipino miners suffering severe radiation burns from the MUTO cave, are referenced when Vivienne remembers the deleted scene's events quite precisely. The fic also references other deleted scenes which weren't in the MonsterVerse movies' finished cuts but were preserved in their official novelizations, such as when Madison during the fic recalls the novelization event where Alan Jonah threatened to have her throat slit.
- Dedz0ne: A popular scrapped character design from Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion's concept art is used as the design for the Kamabo Co. doctor who oversees Acht's sanitization.
- Dino Attack RPG:
- Dino Attack RPG occasionally incorporates cut content from LEGO media in its adaptation of the source material's lore:
- The Adventurers' Island mission mentions Chief Legog and Tribe Ugalego, who were only named in preliminary LEGO Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge documents.
- Dino Attack: The Reunion features elements from LEGO Universe: the Skunkbusters and Beastie Blocks from the pre-release builds, the rumor of Ogel working alongside Paradox based on concept art, and a reenactment of the unreleased Fire Temple's Lord Garmadon boss battle.
- The RPG's Director's Cut includes Databoard making a Big Damn Heroes return during the Final Battle, which was based upon discussions between PeabodySam and Chronicler of Ko-Koro for the latter's return to Dino Attack: At War's End that ultimately never materialized.
- When PeabodySam wrote My Dear Sister from Another Time as a Self-Adaptation of Dear Sister for Mustache Maniacs Film Co.'s Tales Across the World compendium, he incorporated elements of Roger Remous's meeting with Silencia Venomosa (such as meeting in an alleyway near an opera house, and Venomosa shooting at him and missing) that were cut from Dear Sister. Similarly, Patrick the Feared can be considered a loose adaptation of Cold Dishes, and it incorporates the original story's cut plot point of Venomosa being unable to focus on the dinner conversation because of her constant loathing of Don Bricassius.
- Dino Attack RPG occasionally incorporates cut content from LEGO media in its adaptation of the source material's lore:
- Pokémon: Kanto Expansion Pak: This is pretty much the point of this fan game. The developers of the fan game took the discarded Pokémon designs from generations 1 and 2's pre-production (which were revealed to the general public via leaks), polished them and made them viable Pokémon to be captured and controlled in the fan game. Examples include a Ditto and a Pinsir evolution, as well as a Meowth and a Vulpix pre-evolution.
Film — Animation
- Fantastic Mr. Fox: The original book was supposed to end with the family finding supermarkets as their new source of food. Dahl's publishers insisted he change it (though with Dahl agreeing with them in hindsight) and changed it to stealing food from the farms while the three evil farmers are occupied waiting for the foxes to be starved out. The film, which has an expanded story past the book's original ending, ends with finding food in a supermarket...one owned by the same three farmers.
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie:
- Some of the lore ideas for Super Mario Galaxy was to make Rosalina and Peach related. In the film, Peach is revealed to be Rosalina's younger sister who was sent away to the Mushroom Kingdom for her safety.
- The idea of characters from other Nintendo franchises having cameos, if not major roles, was an idea for Super Mario Galaxy 2 that was scrapped by Shigeru Miyamoto.
- Unicron, the now-iconic Planet Eater Big Bad of The Transformers: The Movie was adapted from an unused design from the "Microchange" toyline that was meant to be a small robot that turned into a globe rather than a gigantic one that turned into an actual planet.
Film — Live-Action
- The 1982 film adaptation of Annie restores a Cut Song from the play, "We've Got Annie", where the Warbucks staff and servants react to the news that Warbucks has chosen an orphan to live with him.
- Disney Live-Action Remakes: As result of Adaptation Expansion, some ideas that were scrapped in the original animated version find their way into the live-action versions:
- The Jungle Book: Bill Peet's original Darker and Edgier version of the original 1967 animated film would've featured fire as a major plot element, a scene where Mowgli steals fire from the Man Village to face Shere Khan was intended and the tiger would've meet his demise later in the story. All of that was cut in the final animated version when Walt Disney a more Lighter and Softer take on the movie with the importance of fire being downplayed to Louis wanting to learn how to make it and Mowgli using a branch that was struck by lightning to scare off the tiger. The live-action film would re-explore those ideas from Peet's original version, even bringing back the scrapped character of Rocky the Rhino.
- The Lion King: The original animated film would've had Scar try to seduce the now adult Nala to become his wife, but the idea ended up being scrapped. A similar idea is used here in where Scar tries to make Sarabi his mate.
- The Little Mermaid: In the original animated film, it was originally intended for Ursula and Triton to be siblings, but the idea was not present in the final film. The live-action film revisits the idea of them being siblings.
- In the original animated film, when Ariel is first transformed into a human, her Seashell Bra was going to come off, leaving her completely naked and sport Godiva Hair, but by the storyboarding stage, it changed so her bra stays on. In the 2023 remake, when Ariel first becomes human, she loses her bra and is completely naked.
- Snow White: In the original animated film, Walt and his team had intended for The Evil Queen to lock up the Prince and have a scene where he tries to escape her dungeon but was scrapped as the team wasn't experienced enough to work on another human character. The idea is revisited here in where Jonathan (the Stand In for the Prince) is locked up in the dungeon after The Evil Queen realizes that he knows where Snow White is.
- The protagonist of Miracle in Cell No. 7 was originally meant to have an elderly ailing mother who takes care of his young daughter while he's incarcerated who would eventually die but the idea was scrapped. Most of its Foreign Remakes reused this plot and character.
- Psycho was meant to open with an Epic Tracking Shot through the city until it entered the hotel room Marion was having her affair in, but it was impossible to do with the technology of the time. Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake does open with such a tracking shot, one of the few changes in what is otherwise a Shot-for-Shot Remake of the original.
Literature
- One of the design documents for Final Fantasy II featured certain elements that differed from the final game it otherwise bore a resemblance to, such as General Borghen being a genuinely competent and threatening villain as well as a fortune teller who would help the party and later reveal herself to be The Emperor's mother. The 1989 novelization, Final Fantasy II Muma no Meikyū would incorporate these elements into its take on the game's storyline.
- The makers of the 1995 Mortal Kombat (1995) film had planned for there to be a fight between Sonya Blade and the duo of Kitana and Jade. However, the producers decided to drop the scene as it was believed that there were enough characters already being used for the film (all ten of the characters from the first game plus Mortal Kombat II newcomer Kitana in a case of Adaptational Early Appearance) that adding any more would make it difficult to craft the story while having any more characters. However, this scene is included in the novelization of the film and in an interesting case of Canon Immigrant of sorts also happens in canon in Mortal Kombat 9 during the part of the story set during the first tournament.
Live-Action TV
- Heathers ends with the entire school getting blown up, but happily mingling in a prom in Heaven, while JD and Veronica are unable to communicate with any of them or each other. Rather infamously, the original film was meant to end this way (minus the detail of JD and Veronica being locked out) but was changed to only JD dying.
- Maria Clara at Ibarra, a Portal Book series of Noli Me Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo, has Elias Spared by the Adaptation based on author José Rizal's regret of not being able to make the character the protagonist of the latter novel because he killed the character at the climax of the former.
- Some scrapped ideas in Super Sentai were reused in Power Rangers:
- Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV considered that the team would get a Sixth Ranger, GoSilver, but this idea was scrapped because of budget issuesnote . The idea of a silver ranger was eventually used into Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue in the form of Ryan Mitchell/Titanium Ranger.
- An ironic variation happens in Power Rangers Time Force. Sixth Ranger Eric Myers/Quantum Ranger was supposed to die in the finale like his Mirai Sentai Timeranger counterpart Naoto Takizawa/TimeFire, but Executive Meddling vetoed it so Eric is Spared by the Adaptation. However, Naoto was originally gonna survive Timeranger but his actor successfully persuaded a producer (after repeatedly begging head writer Yasuko Kobayashi beforehand) to kill the character off for stakes.
- A Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger and Timeranger Crossover was considered but never materialized, the closest to such crossover was when the Gaorangers interacted with the Timerangers in the last episode of the latter. Power Rangers Wild Force would have a proper crossover with Time Force, a two-parter at that (and technically another one during the Milestone Celebration).
- A number of ideas Robert Kirkman regretted making in the original Walking Dead comics were either averted or postponed at various points of The Walking Dead Television Universe:
- The twice crippling of protagonist Rick Grimes; first losing his right hand during the Prison Arc (the original show's Seasons 3 and 4), and then his right leg permanently injured at the end of the All-Out War (the show's Seasons 7 and 8). He was Put on a Bus in the antepenultimate season with his whole body intact. Rick eventually loses his left hand instead much later during The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
- Shane Walsh died in Issue 6 of the comics, which the show covered in Season 1. He instead dies before the fall of the Greene family farm in the penultimate episode of the show's second season. In fact one of the reasons Kirkman wanted to do the show in the first place was so that he could more fully explore the character of Shane. And boy howdy did it have ramifications.
- Not utilizing Morgan Jones as a character given that he was the first person Rick encounters since he Slept Through the Apocalypse. Morgan was Put on a Bus immediately, only returning after the fall of the Prison Arc and then dies not long after during the walker herd attack of the Alexandra Safe Zone. In the show he is established more as a character and is Spared by the Adaptation, even becoming a Transplant to Fear the Walking Dead.
- Abraham Ford's abrupt death in the midst of the Savior arc was instead given to minor Recurring Character Denise Cloyd (who dies much earlier and differently in the original), surviving long enough to meet Negan and dies shortly before Glenn (who did die at that point).
- The Watch (2021): The fourth episode, "Twilight Canyons", draws some elements from an unpublished Discworld novel of the same name; mentioned in the afterword of The Shepherd's Crown, the novel would have involved residents of a nursing home preventing the rise of a dark lord despite failing memories.
Theatre
- Aladdin: The 1992 film cut a number of songs at various stages of development, including "Proud Of Your Boy", a solo for Jasmine called, "Call Me A Princess", and "High Adventure", all with lyrics by Howard Ashman, who Died During Production. note It also cut Aladdin's three human friends, Babkak, Omar, and Kassim, who had their own song with Aladdin. These were all restored for the Broadway adaptation since stage musicals typically have longer runtimes than animated films.
- Beauty and the Beast: Several elements were cut or downplayed from the original 1991 film in order to keep the running time under 90 minutes, then were restored and in some cases expanded for the musical version:
- The lengthy song "Human Again" is sung by the enchanted objects as they clean the castle and dream of what they'll do after the curse is broken. Besides enhancing the objects' roles, it adds to the 'teaching to read' sequence between Belle and the Beast and gives more depth to their growing feelings for each other.
- The original concept had Gaston and LeFou going to the insane asylum to meet Monsieur D'Arque, not him coming to Gaston's bar. This was restored and even expanded into the song "Maison des Lunes" for the musical.
- The Beast's descent into madness and despair as the rose wilts was downplayed in the movie, but gets its own song in the musical: "If I Can't Love Her".
- Cats:
- T. S. Eliot decided not to include Grizabella the Glamour Cat's poem in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, feeling it was “too sad for children”. Andrew Lloyd Webber came across the poem while developing Cats and added Grizabella to the show.
- Eliot originally planned to have a story running through Old Possums Book, ending with the Jellicle Cats ascending to the Heaviside Layer. Webber took some inspiration from this for the plot of Cats, where the Jellicles are gathering to choose a cat to ascend.
- In the second act of The Lion King, Nala flees the pride after Scar tries to force her to become his queen and bear his cubs. This was a scene cut from the original film for being too dark for the target audience.
- The Little Mermaid makes Ursula Triton's sister and Ariel's aunt, an idea that was abandoned during the production of The Little Mermaid (1989).
Video Games
- During development of Final Fantasy III, the developers considered giving the protagonists set identities and personalities, but decided against it as a response to the more character-heavy Final Fantasy II, leaving the cast as four nearly-identical Onion Knights. For the 3D remake, the idea was revisited, with the Onion Knights being overhauled into four distinct characters.
- Half-Life 1:
- The game was meant to feature female scientist NPCs alongside their male counterparts, but they were cut from the final product, allegedly due to constraints on texture memory at the time. The Fan Remake Black Mesa would go on to properly implement them.
- Also cut from the game were two alien enemies: the aquatic, electricity-shooting Archer and the flying, gas-spewing Flocking Floater. Black Mesa: Blue Shift, a remake of the Half-Life expansion Half-Life: Blue Shift, integrated them into its version of the chapter "Focal Point" while also reimagining the Flocking Floater as a docile creature.
- Harry Potter: When adapting the books to flim, Peeves the Poltergeist was Adapted Out of the narrative; he was intended to be played by Rik Mayall. Several versions of the first three films' game adaptations feature Peeves as an entity with blue skin, black hair, and a red suit; in the Game Boy Color version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (EA), he's responsible for cursing Harry with the "Mucus ad Nauseum" spell, providing the basis for the Defense Against the Dark Arts course portion of the game. While he doesn't appear in the video game version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (EA), he's still referenced by Fred and George when they flee Hogwarts.
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has Ursula die by getting stabbed by the King's trident, her originally planned death in The Little Mermaid (1989) that was changed into her getting impaled by the bow of a ship instead to be less graphic.
- Medal of Honor Retro Remake: The Colditz Castle Mission was cut from the original Medal of Honor (1999) due to time and development constraints and deadlines. This remake completely restores the mission based on the developer's own interpretation of how the mission might have gone. This includes: a proper backstory and context for the mission, an OSS agent that Patterson must rescue from captivity and eventual execution, an Assassination Attempt on the P.O.W. Camp commandant, and a new weapon in the form of the Gewehr 43 Sniper Rifle.
- Plants vs. Zombies 1 has nearly an entire page's worth of Mini-Games that were left on the cutting room floor, known as the "Limbo Page". The Replanted remaster features most of the Limbo Page games as unlockables, including all 4 cut variants of Survival: Endless.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had several levels cut due to a variety of factors. Among them was the infamous Hidden Palace Zone, one of the earliest implemented but the latest removed. The 2013 mobile remaster and its subsequent port to Sonic Origins feature a reworked version of Hidden Palace Zone as a Secret Level, accessible by Entering what was once a memetic inescapable pit of spikes in Mystic Cave Zone.
Western Animation
- Hilda: In Hilda and the Stone Forest there is a two-panel scene where Hilda and Johanna pass by a strange, grassy hill, which Johanna claims gives her the creeps. It plays no further role in the story or the one after. The hill, as Luke Pearson would later admit
, was supposed to be a Fairy Mound and serve as a Foreshadowing of the (potential) introduction of the Fairies in a later graphic novel. That idea never went anywhere, but instead Fairies and a Fairy Mound did get incorporated into season 3 of the animated series.
- Invincible: Robert Kirkman talked about using the show to visit ideas that he wasn't able to implement in the source material. One notable example involves Damien Darkblood, a demonic minor gag character who scarcely appeared after the first few issues, being given an expanded focus in the show. The Stinger of Season 3 teases his return in "Hurm", as Kirkman stated he always wanted a story arc where he and Mark literally go to Hell, but he never got around to it.
- Thomas & Friends: The Railway Series had a book entitled Barry the Rescue Engine planned for the mid-'80s that ended up being dropped by publishers who asked for more stories about Thomas. The engine the titular Barry was to be based on was an LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T. When The Railway Series was adapted for TV as Thomas & Friends, the character Arthur was introduced in Series 7, and just as Barry was supposed to be, was an Ivatt.
- Transformers: Animated: This show's version of Bumblebee has “stinger” weapons that discharge electric blasts. These weapons were planned to be used for the Bumblebee in the Transformers (Film Series) but the idea was scrapped in favor of that iteration of the character's signature Arm Cannon.
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series: The Neogenic Nightmare arc was apparently based on an early, rejected script for a Spider-Man 1 movie which was to have been directed by Tobe Hooper back when it was in development at The Cannon Group during the Eighties.