Ever since stories were first invented there have always been attempts to bring seemingly unrelated stories and characters together in the grand old tradition of the crossover. From Batman solving a mystery with Scooby Doo and Mystery, INC to the Jeffersons visiting Bel-Air who doesn’t love a good crossover? While some work surprising well like the Ninja Turtles teaming up with the Power Rangers some don’t, like whenever Alf teamed up with pretty much anyone. Unfortunately for these next 10 crossover we’ll never know if they would have worked as they never made it past the idea phase. For a few it was probably for the best.
National Lampoon’s Jaws 3
After the first two successful Jaws movies we almost got a third jaws movie that was supposed to be funny, on purpose this time. I also assume it wouldn’t have been in 3-D either.
Instead of the somewhat clunky titled of Jaws 3-D we almost got a sequel with the even clunkier title National Lampoon’s Jaws 3, People 0 which would have cashed in on a different trend than 3-D, parody movies in the vein of Airplane. With the help of National Lampoon publisher Matty Simmons the sequel had director Joe Dante, fresh of his own Jaws rip-off Piranha, and beloved writer of such classic as National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Breakfast Club, John Hughes on board to write it.
Unfortunately, the one person they did not have onboard for the sequel was director of the original Jaws Steven Spielberg. He threatened to leave Universal Studios, the studio behind the proposed film, if it went forward. So that effectively sunk the whole thing.
So instead of a parody sequel we got two more unintentionally ludicrous sequels with the aforementioned Jaws 3-D and the should-be-forgotten Jaws: The Revenge. Since then, the Jaws franchise has been dead in the water (pun intended), but we did get the Sharknado movies and the classic that is Ghost Shark.
Men in Black/21 Jump Street
Who doesn’t want to see Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum take on aliens? Well technically Jonah Hill faced off against aliens in the forgotten 2012 movie The Watch, but the less said about that the better. In a truly bizarre Interagency team-up in place of a third Jump Street movie we would have gotten a crossover movie titled MIB 23 which saw Hill and Tatum’s character from 21 and 22 Jump Street join the Men in Black.
First mentioned during the now infamous Sony 2014 email leak which was a protest of the Seth Rogen movie The Interview MIB 23 had the writing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller of the Jump Street movies attached to write with Phil Bobbins (The Muppets) set to direct. Sadly, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, stars of the first three Men in Black movies, would not be part of the crossover though.
Despite seeming like a cool idea which might have featured different colored suits like martial arts belts and having a pair of writers and a director attached MIB 23 still has not happened. Instead, we got a Men in Black reboot with 2019’s Men in Black International starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. There is no third Jump Street movie yet.
Jay and Silent Bob vs Pinhead and Michael Myers
Throughout film history there have been many iconic comedy duos from Laurel and Hardy to Abbot and Costello and even the more recent duo of Jay and Silent Bob who have popped up in most of director Kevin Smith’s (who is Silent Bob) movies. The two Gen X comedy icons almost followed in the footsteps of their comedy forebearers Abbot and Costello by starring in a movie with iconic movie monsters much like when Abbot and Costello met Frankenstein.
In the early 2000s during the production of Jay and Silent Bob’s first solo adventure Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Dimension Films head Bob Weinstein, who was a big fan of the old Abbot and Costello meet Universal Monsters series of movies, pitched the idea to Kevin Smith of Jay and Silent Bob meeting horror icons owned by Dimension such as Michael Myers from the Halloween Films, Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, and even the Children of the Corn.
Smith considered the idea and even discussed it with his buddy Ben Affleck who told him it would make “100 million dollars”. In the end he ignored his friend and the potential profits to instead make Jersey Girl which only made about 40 million.
Batman/Godzilla
While they recently mingled in the pages of the Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong comic book the Dark Knight and the King of Monsters almost crossed paths a lot sooner.
Back in the kooky era of the 60s Godzilla was facing off against King Kong for the first time in 1962’s King Kong vs Godzilla while Batman would get his own campy tv series starring Adam West in 1966. These two projects almost led to a crossover thanks to Greenway Productions who produced the Batman tv series and Toho Co who produced the Godzilla films
The proposed film would have been a sequel to the 1966 Batman feature length movie and seen Batman travel to Japan where he would have run into Godzilla of course. It would have not only featured Batman, but also Robin, Commissioner Gordon, and perhaps even Batgirl and Nazis. There were also plans for a scene with Batman taking on Godzilla with an assortment of his Bat-vehicles.
The idea never got much beyond the planning stage with a 22-page treatment by William Dozier, the creator of the Batman series and a manuscript by Shinichi Sekizawa, the writer of the Godzilla series both created around the same time (Sekizawa’s version may even been proposed in 1965 before the success of the Batman tv series). The American version is located at the University of Wyoming while the Japanese version’s location is unknown, but they both still exist somewhere.
Sadly, the project stalled with William Dozier rumored to be hesitant about it being the follow up to the original Batman movie. Eventually the iron cooled as the Batman TV Series was cancelled in 1968 and both franchises will go on to do different things although an unofficial fan webcomic adaption bringing together elements of both treatments was released in 2020
Tekken vs Angry Birds and Colonel Sanders
Crossovers are not just limited to movies. Videogames have also gotten in on the action, mostly with guest characters in fighting games. So far Mortal Kombat has featured Predator, Alien and even Freddy Krueger as guest, but rival fighting game franchise Tekken almost came out the winner in guest character choices
Like the Mortal Kombat franchise Tekken has not been shy about adding guest characters including Walking Dead’s Negan to their roster, but we almost got famous fried chicken mascot Colonel Sanders to join the fight. The idea even went as far as Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series, asking KFC for permission to use their founder.
The idea of adding characters from the popular Angry Birds games was also mentioned which makes a whole lot of sense because I am sure Colonel Sanders has made a lot of birds Angry by deep frying their relatives with 11 herbs and spices.
Colonel Sanders and the Angry birds have not made it onto the Tekken roster, but there could still be hope. That being said: Why not the Taco Bell Chihuahua? I am sure he is available and Gidget already sounds like a Tekken character.
Rocky Balboa Joins G.I. Joe
During the 80s there was no two things more All-American than the Saturday morning cartoon GI Joe, about a paramilitary group taking on the evil Cobra, and the Rocky film franchise which starred Slyvester Stallone as the underdog Rocky Balboa. Rocky almost became a Joe in a crossover that would have made Ronald Reagan’s head explode.
In the middle of the 80s, 1986 to be exact, the folks behind GI Joe decided it would be a good idea to bring Rocky into the Joeverse as the GI Joes’ boxing instructor, despite the Joes mostly using guns and not their fist.
The crossover got as far as Rocky appearing briefly in Marvel Comics’ GI Joe: Order of Battle #2. There was also a toy design with one piece of mock art depicting Rocky using a weapon which was a stick with two boxing gloves on each end. Alas the deal eventually fell through after rival toy company Coleco released a line of Rambo toys using Stallone’s likeness and apparently Stallone himself asked for too much money from Hasbro so in the next issue Rocky was retconned out of the GI Joe universe with a simple retraction.
While the crossover never quite came to fruition the character of Big Boa who was created as a rival for Rocky continued in GI Joe media and Stallone would go on to create his own pseudo- GI Joe franchise with the Expendables.
Ghost Rider haunts Casper the Friendly Ghost
While they both have ghost in their names Ghost Rider and Casper could not be any more different. One is known for being overly-friendly while the other is a bounty hunter for hell. One is owned by Harvey Comics and the other by Marvel. And finally, one was played by Nicholas Cage in the 2000s and the other by Devon Sawa(in human for, at least) in the 1990s
In a crossover that would have made the 1994 crossover between Archie and Punisher make some sense writer Ivan Velez, Jr. pitched a comic book story where Casper and Ghost Rider switched places just a few years after the Archie/Punisher kerfuffle. The story would have seen a villain masquerading as Richie Rich’s father (Richie Rich is also owned by Harvey Comics) try to take over the world and Casper and his pal Wendy the witch trying to stop him. In the process Wendy casts a spell to make Casper stronger, but inadvertently causing Casper and Ghost Rider to switch places in their respective universes.
The idea went as far as Marvel picking up the idea. Velez even managed to write a sample script. Unfortunately, Harvey Comics was more hesitant than Marvel, probably rightly so, and the idea never moved forward. Why not a movie and bring back Nicholas Cage to play Ghost Rider and maybe Christina Ricci?
Dr. Tobias Funke almost visited Sacred Heart
Scrubs and Arrested Development were both underrated sitcoms of the early 2000s. Scrubs dealt with a young doctor who spent too much time daydreaming and Arrested Development dealt with a wealthy family and the one son who daydreamt of escaping them.
While tonally they were much different and aired on different networks: NBC for Scrubs and Fox for Arrested Development we almost got a partial crossover with Dr. Tobias Funke (played by David Cross), failed actor and analrapist (part analyst and part therapist) pitched to visit Sacred Heart Hospital where Scrubs was set.
There was already some crossover between the shows with Scrubs star Zack Braff playing guest character Philip Lit on Arrested Development and Arrested Development star Jason Bateman appearing on Scrubs, but Zack Braff was pushing for a more formal crossover, even mentioning it in an interview.
Sadly, most likely due to the shows airing on rival networks, that crossover never happened. It’s a shame too as The Todd would have had a field day with Tobias’ double-entredes. Maybe we could see Tobias pop up in a Scrubs reboot or the lawyer Barry Zuckercorn show up to replace Ted Buckland(played by a sadly passed away Sam Lloyd)
Harry Potter and Doctor Who
The UK has created some great entertainment over the years and chief among that is the long-running science fiction tv series Doctor Who and the young adult franchise Harry Potter. In 2008 the two franchises almost collided in a proposed Doctor Who Christmas Special.
After she turned down the chance to write a Doctor Who episode there was an idea to have Harry Potter author JK Rowling appear as herself in the upcoming Christmas Special. The story would have followed Rowling trying to figure out what to write after Harry Potter. As she sat down to write her imagination would come to live, turning the real world into that of Harry Potter. Of course, Doctor Who would have come to the rescue, turning everything back to normal.
There was a planned meeting with Rowling, but before things could move forward David Tennant, who was the Doctor at the time, vetoed the idea. He claimed it would come off as too silly and so to appease their star the idea was dropped. Perhaps it could still happen one day…
The X-files takes on an Unsolved Mystery
In retrospect this final crossover would not turn out to be not so far-fetched as later in season 7 X-files would crossover with another reality show “Cops” with the episode “X-cops” featuring Mulder and Scully on a fictionalized version of the docu-series. Before that though Mulder and Scully were almost featured on a different reality show true crime series Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack
In 1997, during season 5 of X-files, writer and future creator of Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan had the idea of an episode of X-files framed as an Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack hosting. It would have recounted a typical X-files adventures and even bringing in other actors besides David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson to play Mulder and Scully in the reenactments.
While he came up with the idea Gilligan could not figure out how to write the episode Eventually, he abandoned the idea and wrote the vampire episode “Bad Blood” instead. “Bad Blood” ended up being a fan-favorite episode it is sad to think about what could have been. At least we got the “X-Cops” episode a few seasons later though
Those are just a few of the outlandish pop culture crossovers that almost happened. I’m sure there are many more. Would you want to see any of these crossovers. Is there an out-there crossover you want to see? Let us know in the comments.
