Sci-Fi Concept Art From Pixar, 'Alien' and 'Star Wars' That Didn't Make the Final Cut

Developing concept art in science fiction and fantasy is an important part of the creative process.

Some ideas end up collected in art books devoted to the larger film they were meant to appear in, and exploring these images can be really interesting. These are some examples of great concept art that we didn’t get to see in the finished product, whether that film was a Pixar animation like The Incredibles, a video game like Mass Effect, or sci-fi horror like Predator or Alien. Some ideas were even dropped from Star Wars. Let’s take a look.

‘Alien’

The cinematic xenomorph is still terrifying, but this early prototype is just as grotesque, with its large eyes and even more bio-mechanical limbs. H.R. Giger sketch this designed early in the film’s development, when he was still working with his earlier painting Necronom IV. Soon after, he would create the hard-shelled nightmare of a species that pour embryos into John Hurt’s stomach, but this one is still just as horrific.

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’

Jerad S. Marantz created versions of Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady for the first TMNT movie, and while Bebop and Rocksteady were confirmed to be in the sequel, Krang was left to be a scrap from the first.

As we know, Krang will appear in this year’s Out of the Shadows, but not in this spider walker.

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

This was an early rendition of Kylo Ren’s mask by Industrial Light & Magic. While I do like the finished product better, this one probably would’ve fooled us into thinking perhaps another species hid behind the mask instead of the troubled Ben Solo.

‘Batman Returns’

In the original Batman Returns film, Penguin’s helpers flew around with their miniature jetpacks, but using this concept by Tim Flattery, the birds would’ve been able to chop off your leg instead. I highly doubt they’re any faster than a usual penguin, though, so that’s probably why the idea was scrapped. If the two are combined, that’s another matter entirely. A few people would be getting a buzz cut.

‘Predator’

Good thing that this version of Predator was only one of the first! While this crouching beast would’ve been pretty scary as it bounded over to the quivering heroes, what makes Predator so terrifying and iconic is that the alien is intelligent. This guy does not look intelligent — not any more than a Xenomorph from Alien, anyway. And Ridley Scott’s film had just come out one year earlier in 1986, so having another sci-fi monster movie with a mindless alien would’ve just left Predator in the pile of forgetful monster bashes of the 80s.

‘The Incredibles’

Lou Romano released various drawings of both used and scrapped pieces from The Incredibles on his blog. This brainiac looks like he could be Edna’s brother, but he was actually supposed to be a villain in the first film. With the [sequel] coming out in a few years, though, there’s still time for him and the other potential villains to make a CGI appearance.

‘Mass Effect’

Matt Rhodes, a concept artist for all three Mass Effect games, posted a whole slew of different pieces that show the progression of each game, alien, character, and scenery throughout the trilogy.

He even went on to describe his process for creating these aspects of the game. The picture above is what he thinks turian buildings may look like, although we never see them in the game. He has drafts of old Cerberus soldiers, Protheans, Reapers, and even Tali without her mask.

‘Doctor Who’

This extremely creepy and disturbing Cyberman could’ve given nightmares to children. Luckily it was changed, but Peter McKinstry, concept artist for Game of Thrones and Doctor Who, came up with this drawing that looks like it came straight out of Silent Hill early in development. He later switched over to the more metallic version we’re now used to.

‘Big Hero 6’

A drawing done by Ryan Lang, this is a completely different take on the central plot in Big Hero 6. Instead of one man in a kabuki mask, there is an entire gang and they look to be without Hiro’s MicroBots and tagging along with three members of SWAT. Maybe this’ll even be an idea for a sequel if they have one. It appears they’ve viciously popped Baymax, which is savage.

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’

This creepy creation by Andy Park, a concept artist that has worked with Marvel on various different movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor, could’ve been the cybernetic villain of the movie. This Ultron is simlar to the end product, but with the thrumming red glowing from within his body and the gaping raw mouth, this may be a little more ghoulish than what they wanted.