Dreamworks considered telling Kipo as a feature film, but it was decided it would have been better suited for a television series due to its potential for worldbuilding.
In the original webcomic, Benson was a muscular, older white man who wielded a large sword. Executives pushed for the entire group to be children/teenagers, so he was aged down.
The Newton Wolves were called the Sagan Wolves in concept art. This still carries over into the show because they wear turtlenecks and blazers, which Carl Sagan often wore.
The Timbercats were originally going to be called the Lumbercats.
Scarlemagne’s Nobles were originally going to consist of more primates, including gorillas, baboons, and De Brazza monkeys. The only primates that remain in the finalized show are orangutans, tarsiers, spider monkeys, and marmosets.
A few mute designs ultimately went unused. These include designs for a hippo chef, a silkworm tailor, a luchador budgerigar, and a bearded dragon with a cap.
Before Scarlemagne was created, Tad Mulholland was intended to be the Big Bad. The idea was scrapped upon realizing he didn't serve as a good foil to Kipo.
At one point, the creators considered making Scarlemagne a vampire bat mute who collected humans and regularly bleed them out, storing their bodies in giant wine bottles in an underground cellar. In the process of pitching this incarnation of the character, they realized from the reaction of the executives that such a character was far too dark for the show's intended tone and went back to him as a monkey.
When Jamack is exiled from the Mod Frogs, they cut off his tie. Originally, the creators were going to have his tongue cut off, but they ultimately decided it would be too dark and brutal.
Ben Mekler stated Wolf’s backstory was not intended to be seen in the first season, but to fully understand why she was so hostile about mutes and pushed Kipo away after discovering she was part mute, the audience would need to get a clear understanding of Wolf’s situation so she could be sympathetic.
There were a number of jokes scrapped from the show.
After finding out Jamack let the burrow girl and her friends escape, Scarlemagne would have told one of his human slaves to "eat a chandelier".
One scenario would have Dave molting into two Daves, which would make them do a rock-paper-scissors game to see who would stay with the group. When the other Dave left, Kipo’s group would go back to what they were doing as if nothing happened.
In some storyboards for the "Purple Jaguar Eye" sequence, Kipo would have seen her entire burrow community dancing on the giant guitar strings alongside Benson, Dave, Wolf, and her dad. Also, giant purple jaguar paws would have been cutting the guitar strings and making the people on them fall into the guitar hole. In the finalized episode, burning meteors are coming down at the giant guitar, and only Kipo’s father and friend group are shown dancing, most likely for animation simplicity.
Rad Sechrist and Bill Wolkoff admitted that instead of Yumyan being cured and turning into a non-sapient animal, Jamack was originally considered to be cured. They said that while it would be a Gut Punch, they thought curing Yumyan would be more effective because he befriended Kipo earlier in the series and was the leader of an entire faction, which would make it more hard hitting to see him go.
was originally named Minji.