History WhatCouldHaveBeen / RebuildOfEvangelion

* The Third Angel underwent several minor changes in production. Originally, it would have the ability to somehow emit poisonous gas from its mouth, but this was deleted, probably because it would be hardly useful against Evangelions.
* A scrapped plan for the second movie would've had Asuka and Mari piloting Eva Unit 02 together during the battle with Zeruel. In the final film Mari pilots it by herself since Asuka is hospitalized, though storyboards of the original idea can be seen on the DVD extras.

** Another concept for Mari that was dumped had her [[CrazyCatLady owning several cats at home]], and she would have had tattoos of them on her body. Her cat-eared helmet and her fondness for dropping cat noises in her speech may be relics of this idea.

** Another concept for Mari that was dumped had her [[CrazyCatLady owning several cats at home]], and she would have had tattoos of them on her body. Her cat-eared helmet and her fondness for dropping cat noises in her speech may be references to this.

** Another concept for Mari that was dumped had her [[KindheartedCatLover owning several cats at home]], and she would have had tattoos of them on her body. Her cat-eared helmet and her fondness for dropping cat noises in her speech may be references to this.

* Rei was initially supposed to die during the battle with Zeruel in the second movie, but screenwriter Yoji Enokido argued that she should survive this time around. However, one of the directors, who really wanted to develop the third Rei, was pissed off at this and managed to overturn the decision in the third movie, where it's revealed that Rei wasn't rescued after all and now Rei III has replaced her.

* When Amazon bought the rights to dub the ''Rebuild'' films, ADR Director Joe Fria was given a choice on whether to use a new cast or bring back the original voice actors. He chose the latter because, while he respected the Netflix redub of the original series, he noted the negative fan reception it received over not bringing back the original English cast.

* Creator/AmandaWinnLee, who voiced Rei Ayanami in every incarnation of ''Evangelion'' up to that point, was offered to reprise her role for the original Funimation dub first ''Rebuild'' film. However, since she had to care for her son Nicholas at the time, she turned the offer down. In the end, Winn-Lee was replaced by Creator/BrinaPalencia. Years later, she'd get her chance to return to the role when Amazon redubbed the previous three films on top of the fourth.
* Joe Fria, who directed the Amazon Prime dubs, has mentioned that Amazon gave him a choice on whether to use a new cast or bring back the original voice actors. He chose the latter because, while he respected the Netflix redub of the original series, he noted the negative fan reception it received over not bringing back the original English cast.

* Creator/AmandaWinnLee, who voiced Rei Ayanami in every incarnation of ''Evangelion'' up to that point, was offered to reprise her role for the first ''Rebuild'' film. However, since she had to care for her son Nicholas at the time, she turned the offer down. In the end, Winn-Lee was replaced by Creator/BrinaPalencia. Years later, she'd get her chance to return to the role when Amazon redubbed the previous three films on top of the fourth.
* Creator/RobinWilliams, famous comic/actor and [[JustForFun/OneOfUs a big fan of Evangelion]], is said to have auditioned for the role of Gendo Ikari for the English dub of the ''Rebuild'' movies before Creator/JohnSwasey returned to reprise his role.

* In an 2020 interview, Anno revealed that back in the early 2000s, he was working on-and-off on some vague and tentative plans of one day putting together some sort of epilogue story to the original ''Evangelion'' TV-series. The project would instead eventually evolve into ''Rebuild''.

!!General

* Another abandoned idea, which went as far as [[http://images.wikia.com/evangelion/images/9/94/Asuka_Bardiel_Sketch.png the storyboard stage]] and is included on the DVD release, would've shown Bardiel's mental attack on Asuka in greater detail. At one point Asuka would hallucinate [[BodyHorror her own face being peeled off]], and [[FromBadToWorse to get worse]], the face would stare back at Asuka and begin mocking her.
** [[spoiler:That last part ended up reused in ''3.0 + 1.0'']].

* Almost nothing of the preview for ''Rebuild 3.0'' made it into the actual film, which makes one wonder what they were planning originally.
** Anno revealed in a stage greeting that 3.0 was initially supposed to follow the events just after 2.0, as seen in the preview: Gendo and Fuyutsuki would've been stripped of their leadership positions at NERV and went on the run as fugitives until Gendo returned, took back control of NERV and used the Mark.06 to restart Third Impact, at which point most of NERV [[AntiMutiny split off to form WILLE]] and Kaji pulled a HeroicSacrifice to abort Third Impact. The last movie would had picked up after the timeskip, but Anno didn't like the idea to have a movie without the main character, so he skipped the story to Shinji's awakening 14 years later.

* It was originally going to be released in 2013. However, it became stuck in DevelopmentHell for quite a few years due to Anno's CreatorBreakdown and his work on the 2016 ''Shin Godzilla'' movie.

* Evangelion Unit-8+2 that was shown in the preview of 3.0 is never part of the movie proper. The closest we get is a brief moment where half of Unit-08 is covered in blood, making it the half red/half pink that was in the trailer.

* Evangelion Unit-08+02 that was shown in the preview of 3.0 is never part of the movie proper. The closest we get is a brief moment where half of Unit-08 is covered in blood, making it the half red/half pink that was in the trailer.

* Another abandoned idea, which went as far as [[http://images.wikia.com/evangelion/images/9/94/Asuka_Bardiel_Sketch.png the storyboard stage]] and is included on the DVD release, would've shown Bardiel's mental attack on Asuka in greater detail. At one point Asuka would hallucinate her face being [[BodyHorror her own face being peeled off]], and [[FromBadToWorse to get worse]], the face would stare back at Asuka and begin mocking her.

** Anno revealed in a stage greeting that 3.0 was initially supposed to follow the events just after 2.0, as seen in the preview, and the last movie would had picked up after the timeskip, but Anno didn't liked the idea to have a movie without the main character, so he skipped the story to Shinji's awakening 14 years later.

* Creator/AmandaWinnLee, who voiced Rei Ayanami in every incarnation of ''Evangelion'' up to that point, was offered to reprise her role for the first ''Rebuild'' film. However, since she had to care for her son Nicholas at the time, she turned the offer down. In the end, Winn-Lee was replaced by Creator/BrinaPalencia.

!!''2.0 You Can (Not) Advance)''

!!''3.0 You Can (Not) Redo''

!!''3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time''

* The fourth film was originally going to be released in 2013. However, it became stuck in DevelopmentHell for quite a few years due to Anno's CreatorBreakdown and his work on the 2016 ''Shin Godzilla'' movie.

* Creator/RobinWilliams, famous comic/actor and [[JustForFun/OneOfUs a big fan of ''Evangelion'']], is said to have auditioned for the role of Gendo Ikari for the English dub of the ''Rebuild'' movies before Creator/JohnSwasey returned to reprise his role.

* Creator/RobinWilliams, famous comic/actor and [[JustForFun/OneOfUs a big fan of Evangelion]], is said to have auditioned for the role of Gendo Ikari for the English dub of the ''Rebuild'' movies before Creator/JohnSwasey returned to reprise his role.