Fears that turned out to be nothing....

[Heeroyuy]

What are some sci-fi rumors/announcements that generated a lot of fan worry, but then turned out to be nothing?


Let's start with the Star Wars prequels. Although the films are still much maligned, there's two rumors/deleted scenes that fans were going nuts about:


-The N'sync cameo in ATTACK OF THE CLONES. There was even a Saturday Night Live skit on this. But, they're not visible in the film at all, possibly removed due to the backlash.

-The Yoda farts scene. Although this isn't explicity in the script (Neither was the TPM fart scene, either), it could've been in a deleted scene where Yoda is in disguise on Kashyyk, trying to fool a squad of Clone Troopers that he is a harmless swamp creature (Shades of his first appearence in ESB here). I actually would've liked to have seen the scene, since it would've actually given Chewbacca something to do, even though it was a ROTJ redux (Basically while Yoda distracts the troops, Chewie commandeers an Imperial walker).

 

[WillsBabe]

Mine are all Trek related: Arnold Sczwarzanegger was to be in TNG (a Q-inspired atheletic competition); Eddie Murphy was to be in a TOS Trek film (V possibily); a TOS Trek film was going to be set in the Academy; a TOS Trek film was going to be a musical. I know these all sound like jokes, but I have heard 'em over the years.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Mine are all Trek related: Arnold Sczwarzanegger was to be in TNG (a Q-inspired atheletic competition);

Fifth season. It's why there wasn't a Q episode that season.

Eddie Murphy was to be in a TOS Trek film (V possibily);

Star Trek IV, actually. His character eventually morphed into Dr. Gillian Taylor. Murphy ended up doing The Golden Child instead.

a TOS Trek film was going to be set in the Academy;

That was Harve Bennett's plan for Star Trek VI. It got fairly far along. It was going to film at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Ethan Hawke was going to play Kirk, and John Cusack was going to play Spock. But then someone high in Paramount realized that Shatner and Nimoy weren't going to be in it, and they put the film into turnaround. Bennett walked, and Nimoy started over from scratch, bringing in Nick Meyer to create The Undiscovered Country.

a TOS Trek film was going to be a musical.

That one I've never heard.

 

[Ethros]

There was that rumour Birtney Spears was gonna be in Buffy.
Joss Whedon recently commented on this looking back (see the video interview here, just over a minute in)

Apparantly all it was was the studio said she studio said she might want to do the show, if they could be believed, so they wrote the role of the robot in Season 5's "I Was Made To Love You" in case she did appear, and thus no strenious acting would be required.
For better or worse the rumours seemed to bullshit anyway

 

[nx1701g]

The Federation lost the Dominion War and Voyager came back to lead the Rebellion.

 

[JoeZhang]

Star Trek IV, actually. His character eventually morphed into Dr. Gillian Taylor. Murphy ended up doing The Golden Child instead.[/QUOTE]

Yeah it nixed because the accountants pointed out that a eddie Murphy film + star film would make more overall than a Star Trek film with Eddie Murphy in it. In one of Shatner's books he notes that at the end we would have seen Murphy in a Starfleet uniform.

 

[Jono]

The Federation lost the Dominion War and Voyager came back to lead the Rebellion.

...closest emoticon I could find to vomiting in horror.

 

[Hermiod]

The Federation lost the Dominion War and Voyager came back to lead the Rebellion.

...closest emoticon I could find to vomiting in horror.

It would have been better than the "oh look, we're home... THE END!" ending we got.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

For a while I was VERY worried that

Spoiler: Heroes finale rumor

Peter would die for good in this season's finale. He's really the only character on the show that I think they absolutely must keep for the duration of the show.

Then I learned that it was more likely

Spoiler: Heroes finale rumor

Nathan that was going to die for good.

And while I still think this is likely, my theory what happens next season makes it not so bad because

Spoiler: Heroes finale rumor and S4 speculation

Sylar will copy Nathan's DNA and memories, lose control of the persona, and in the end, Nathan will completely take over Sylar and be "reborn," a very fitting ironic ending for Sylar.

So I guess we find out tomorrow.

Oh, and some of the Trek XI recasting rumors had me pretty worried. Damon & Affleck? Overall, we dodged quite a few bullets.

The Federation lost the Dominion War and Voyager came back to lead the Rebellion.

I wanted that to happen!

It would have been better than the "oh look, we're home... THE END!" ending we got.

Better for VOY. It's the Niners who were grossly offended by the very idea.

I liked the idea if it could have been the basis for Series V - which, if written by the DS9 crew, could have been far better than ENT (tho I liked ENT's premise just fine).

 

[Hermiod]

For a while I was VERY worried that

Spoiler: Heroes finale rumor

Peter would die for good in this season's finale. He's really the only character on the show that I think they absolutely must keep for the duration of the show.

I, on the other hand, hope it does happen because it's the only way left to fix his character.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

The N'sync cameo in ATTACK OF THE CLONES. There was even a Saturday Night Live skit on this. But, they're not visible in the film at all, possibly removed due to the backlash.

IIRC, they did end up in the final cut briefly. One of them can be seen tossing a lightsaber to Anakin Skywalker during the arena battle on Geonosis.

I, like many others, am very grateful that the subtitle of Star Wars: Episode III was not "The Creeping Fear."

Then there's that J.J. Abrams Superman movie that was never made. Among its many pointless changes to the mythology, Krypton does not explode and Lex Luthor is a Kryptonian posing as an FBI agent.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Oh, and I think we can all be grateful that we got Chris Nolan's Batman Begins rather than Darren Aronofsky's Batman: Year One based on a bizarre Frank Miller screenplay. In that script, after Bruce Wayne is orphaned, he's raised in a junkyard by a jive-talking black man named Alfred. And the Batmobile is a tricked out school bus.

I think we're all glad that Spider-Man wasn't played by Freddie Prinze Jr. or Keanu Reeves.

And then there's that Tim Burton Superman movie which would have showed the "darker, more murderous side of Superman." Superman wouldn't fly; he would drive around in a car. And when he was resurrected, he looked like a cross between Edward Scissorhands & a Borg drone.

 

[Trent Roman]

And while I still think this is likely, my theory what happens next season makes it not so bad because

Spoiler: Heroes finale rumor and S4 speculation

Sylar will copy Nathan's DNA and memories, lose control of the persona, and in the end, Nathan will completely take over Sylar and be "reborn," a very fitting ironic ending for Sylar.

So I guess we find out tomorrow.

That's what I figured as well ever since I saw the clips at the end of last week's episode, except:

Spoiler: Speculation on Heroes finale

Noah tells MattaParkman: "If you don't do this, Nathan is gone forever"; implying that (a) Nathan is at least partly gone (screaming mother); and (b) MattaParkman will use his mental abilities to 'force' Sylar into Nathan's personality. Which is interesting, because you're technically killing two characters without actually killing them. The massive threat that is Sylar is quelled, though with the possibility of reappearing again, and Nathan finally gets what's coming to him while still being able to continue on the show.

As for worrisome sci-fi rumours that never panned out... this. So very bad.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Greg Cox]

Jack Black is . . . Green Lantern!

 

[captcalhoun]

Spock gets married and Kirk becomes a monk in STVI.

Michael Bay directing Transformers would be a complete car-crash and tank.

Clint Eastwod playing Batman in a Dark Knight Returns movie

 

[Leroy]

Having Jack Black and or Adam Sandler being the Green Lantern and the movie being an action comedy.

 

[nx1701g]

^ I'm still fearful that'll happen.

 

[blaXXer]

-The Yoda farts scene. Although this isn't explicity in the script (Neither was the TPM fart scene, either), it could've been in a deleted scene where Yoda is in disguise on Kashyyk, trying to fool a squad of Clone Troopers that he is a harmless swamp creature (Shades of his first appearence in ESB here). I actually would've liked to have seen the scene, since it would've actually given Chewbacca something to do, even though it was a ROTJ redux (Basically while Yoda distracts the troops, Chewie commandeers an Imperial walker).

Strangely, I remember seeing that scene in cinema. minus the farting of course.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Jim Carrey in a Six Million Dollar Man movie.

 

[Aragorn]

The Federation lost the Dominion War and Voyager came back to lead the Rebellion.

So how would that have gone?

"We need to reverse the polarity on the trans-magnetic subspace anti-frequency plasma conduit and align it with the bat shark repellent emitter!"

The war would be over in 25 seconds.