Production shot of Eric Stoltz, the original Marty McFly
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Part I
- Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly before the casting of Michael J. Fox. While Fox was always the first choice for the role, the production team behind Family Ties didn't want him absent from the series during Meredith Baxter's pregnancy. After six weeks of filming, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale decided that Stoltz was too much of a dramatic actor for a more comedic part. By this stage, Baxter was back fully on the series and the producers finally agreed to let Fox go off to star in the film.
- C. Thomas Howell was the runner-up for the role of Marty McFly. Howell was both Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's preferred choice for the part, but the studio executives at Universal preferred Stoltz, which ultimately led to his casting.
- Jon Cryer, Ben Stiller, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, George Newbern, Ralph Macchio, Matthew Modine and Robert Downey Jr. auditioned for Marty McFly as well before the casting of Fox.
- John Lithgow was the first choice for the role of Doc Brown before Christopher Lloyd was cast. However, Lithgow turned down the offer due to filming conflicts with Twilight Zone: The Movie.
- Jeff Goldblum, James Woods, John Cleese, John Candy, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Gene Wilder, Eddie Murphy, Gene Hackman, Harold Ramis, Mandy Patinkin, Henry Winkler, Dudley Moore, Randy Quaid, Ron Silver, Joe Piscopo, Robin Williams, Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito were also considered for the part of Doc Brown before the casting of Lloyd.
- Tim Robbins, Daniel Stern, Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Deluise and Billy Zane read for the role of Biff Tannen before the casting of Thomas F. Wilson. Zane was ultimately cast as Biff's hechman, Match, in the first movie.
- The casting of Eric Stoltz influenced the casting of several other roles. Lea Thompson was chosen as the female lead in part because she had previously worked with Stoltz in The Wild Life. A key factor in Thomas F. Wilson's casting as Biff is that, at 6'3", he was one of the few contenders for the role who had some height on the 6' Stoltz. This also allowed for Melora Hardin, at 5'5", to be cast as his Love Interest Jennifer, only for her to be let go when he was replaced with the 5'4" Michael J. Fox.
- Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale originally pitched the film to Disney and then to Columbia Pictures, both of whom turned it down, albeit for completely different reasons: Columbia felt it was too quaint whereas Disney thought it was too raunchy. In particular, they took umbrage with the angle of 1955 Lorraine coming onto her future son.
- The original time machine was a modified refrigerator, changed because it would have been a very stationary prop and Steven Spielberg had images of children locking themselves in the fridge to the horror of their parentsnote (humorously, he would later use a refrigerator and a nuclear explosion in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). They also would have driven into the blast of a nuclear bomb to fuel the flux capacitor, changed because that alone would have doubled the production costs and the clock tower lightning strike made a fairly simple and stationary location.
- In one draft of the script, a more generic time machine and the aforementioned fridge above were utilized. However, the time machine required a special ingredient to work: Coca-Cola. In the finale, Marty sneaks into a nuclear testing site, complete with detailed suburban houses. As the countdown starts, he drops the bottle of Coke, and it shatters on the floor. He panics at first, until he realizes that like any American home in that era, the fridge is stocked with another bottle of Coke. It's also lead-lined, so hiding in there lets him survive the blast. This conveniently gives Marty everything he needs to go back to the future. Also, Marty played the Close Encounters of the Third Kind theme on his guitar while pirating a VHS copy of it in the opening scene.
- One version of the script had Biff as a cop that kept "borrowing" stuff from George and had a daughter. After Marty changed the past, Biff became a security guard working for George, who became a boxing champion.
- In the original draft's ending, Marty discovers upon his return home that his interference in the past has culminated in his time becoming a much more advanced world, which he tells Doc Brown (called Professor Brown in this draft) he's going to like.
- The producers considered using "Papa Loves Mambo" by Perry Como when Marty arrives in the 1955 Hill Valley, before deciding on "Mister Sandman", thereby making it the "Mister Sandman" Sequence. "Papa Loves Mambo" would however show up in Part II where it's the song playing on the car radio as Biff drives to the dance..
- There was originally going to be an explanation as to why Marty and Doc were friends: Doc just showed up one day and hired Marty to clean his garage, paying him $50 a week and free beer (Bob Gale would later add that it was Marty who, as a rebel kid, first heard of Doc being an outcast and sneaked into his garage out of curiosity).
- Doc had bankrupted himself funding his research (something only vaguely implied in the final film) and he made bootleg movie videos that Marty sold to other kids to scrap some money.
- Originally when Marty looked Doc up in the past, Doc was going to be having a party, and was flanked by two women when he opened the door. The scene played out the same, but with Doc's two girlfriends laughing at Marty. Then, instead of getting the idea for time travel from falling down while hanging a clock, Doc was inspired after whispering something into a woman's ear and subsequently being hit in the head with a beer bottle.
- In the original treatment, the time machine was rigged up inside a car wash. Marty McFly was chronically depressed, and in a hilarious misunderstanding, he mistook the time machine for a suicide device and climbed into it in order to kill himself. Also, there was originally going to be a major plot point where people in the past repeatedly mistook Marty for an alien.
- The studio wanted Zemeckis to cut the "Johnny B. Goode" scene to improve pacing, but relented because the test audiences considered it one of the best parts of the movie.
- Doc was originally called "Professor Brown".
- As indicated in the novelization, there were once as many as six Libyan terrorists, including a Dark Action Girl named Uranda. The leader was named Sam, who started out as a Child Soldier (he's in his early forties in 1985 and mentioned to have been a terrorist for 30 years).
- In the scenes shot with Eric Stoltz, Marty was dressed in a black jacket and pants with a white t-shirt, with the idea being that it'd be something a teen in 1985 might wear that, while appearing contemporary, conveniently wouldn't stand out much in 1955. Once Michael J. Fox took over the role, it was decided it would add to the Fish out of Temporal Water comedy if his clothing didn't fit in for 1955, leading to Marty getting a more distinctly 1980s look.
Part II
- According to Bob Gale, ideas proposed for Part II included a visit to Doc's family (with Christopher Lloyd playing his mother), and going to the days of Prohibition when Biff's ancestor was a bootlegger. The last bit was retaken for the first episode of the video game. And yes, Bob Gale worked on it.
- The sequel originally had Doc and Marty going back to the '60s after Biff's interference and seeing Marty's parents as pseudo-hippies, and part of his goal would have been to ensure that he is conceived. About mid-way through writing this part, they realized that there was nothing really stopping them from revisiting the events of the first movie. Relatedly, the almanac plot, rather than being the main source of conflict is dealt with pretty quickly and is more of an excuse to get them to go back to the past, where the conflict one again shifts to Marty trying to guarantee his own existence. In that version, George was already dead in 2015 (and it was NOT 2015-A). It was mentioned that, at some undisclosed moment, George's life had been saved at a hospital that had previously survived an attempt from the town to demolish it. In the timeline where Biff became wealthy, the hospital had been demolished and George succumbed to his injuries, meaning that Biff was only indirectly responsible for his death, unlike in the final film where he directly murdered him. You can read about this version and its associated tropes on this very Wiki.
- The sequel was originally a deconstruction of the first movie. Future Marty is a wreck because he's addicted to taking chances and trying to cheat his way to fortune. When the present day Marty discovers that he will turn out poor, he decides to secure his own financial future by buying the Sports Almanac. Even after seeing what kind of damage careless time travel can do in 1985-A, Marty still finds it hard to let go of the Almanac. Ultimately, the lesson he learns is that the best way to get a good future is to live a good life. Major parts of the story remain in the final movie, but the Aesop got muddled in rewrites.
- There is an entire subplot missing from the 1955 segment, which explains the problems with the time circuits which lead to Doc getting sent back to 1885. Originally Doc ran into farmer Peabody and a policeman who were looking for the "UFO" that crashed into Peabody's barn and killed his pine. Later on Peabody sees the DeLorean flying by, and shoots at it with his rifle, hitting its underside and damaging the time circuits. In the finished movie this was changed so that the problem was actually caused by old Biff hitting the console with the head of his cane as he's getting out of the DeLorean. Doc makes an attempt to fix it, but the problem reoccurs after he accidentally hits the line of pennants on top of the Lyon Estates sign as he's flying off. According to Word of God the story was changed because they were (for some unknown reason) unable to shoot at the Lyon Estates sign set during the day. This is also why Marty gets stuck in Biff's garage for 12 hours.
- Yet another version of the script had the time circuits damaged after the car was shot while fleeing from corrupt cops in 1985-A (the ones Biff claimed to own).
Part III
- In the first draft, while fixing up the DeLorean, Marty learns that Doc is a physics professor at the Hill Valley University and is dating the Dean's daughter Jill Wooster. Doc says that she also likes Jules Verne and they both went to Pismo Beach. Dean Wooster and his cohorts Cooper and Mintz suddenly show up and tells Doc that he must participate in one of three projects: the Edsel car, chemical warfare, or Xerox (which Doc pronounces "X-rox"). Doc however has no interest in any of the projects and refuses to do so. The Dean threatens Doc's relationship with his daughter unless he cooperates. The next day, Jill tries to convince Doc to do it for her, but Doc still refuses. Jill angrily breaks up with him, adding that she never liked Jules Verne. Heartbroken, Doc trashes all his photos of himself with Jill, and swore to never fall in love again (that is until he meets Clara).
- In the scene where Marty flips the spittoon onto Buford, he was originally supposed to have flipped some stray manure. However, stunt coordinator Walter Scott, who actually had grown up in the rural areas of the west, and actually moved his family out there, pointed out to the Bobs that in the old west, people frequently got covered in manure all the time and never complained at all, a fact that the Bobs, two self-professed city guys, never knew. Ironically enough, when the Bobs settled on the spittoon, Scott reacted akin to "oh that's nasty!"
- Zemeckis and Gale considered having Ronald Reagan, who recently left office as President, appear as the 1885 Mayor. Given the moment dropping his name in Part I and the Max Headroom Expy that appears in the 80s Cafe in Part II, having him appear in Part III would have neatly tied things together in a Rule of Cool way. And Part III was The Western, a genre Reagan worked with. Ultimately nothing came of it.
- If Crispin Glover had signed on to the sequels (various reasons have circulated over the years as to why), he would've played Seamus McFly in Part III, and Lea Thompson would play a bar girl who eventually marries Seamus. Also, Seamus offers Mad Dog a job after losing to Marty.
- In the script, a heartbroken Doc drank the whole bottle. Looks like he can hold his liquor... until Marty comes to get him.
- Zemeckis and Gale intended—and fought for—III to have the same Universal logo as the previous two, for the sake of symmetry. Universal, however, wanted it to carry the 75th Anniversary banner.
