List of unused concepts

Throughout the development of the Ninjago franchise, there have been several concepts that were brainstormed but ultimately scrapped for one reason or another. Below is a list of known concepts that ultimately went unused in the series and sets.

See also concept art. Note that this page mostly includes information that is not evident from concept art alone.

Early character names

Character	Early name(s)
Kai	Ash, Dante
Nya	Aya, Nia,[citation needed] Aura
Cole	Blake
Jay	Ren, Poe, Rayne
Zane	Boon, Whitman, Wynn
Samukai	Grim, Samuki Goro
Kruncha	General Crunch
Nuckal	Crumble,[citation needed] Captain Cranium Funny Bones
Chopov	Kronk
Garmadon	Lord Demic
P.I.X.A.L.	Pixel
Skylor	Skyler
Nadakhan	Azad
Unagami	Urigami, Lord Morigami
Scott	Will
Vania	Ayella
Lilly	Jane
Skull Sorcerer	Ashmonger
Arin	Max

Unused concepts for the TV series

Pilot episodes

• Four Weapons Blacksmith is called "Four Arms Blacksmith," with "Arms" being a synonym for "Weapon." At this point, it was already decided that Garmadon would gain four arms, so this would be a reference to that.
• The Scythe of Quakes is a hammer called the Hammer of Quakes.
• In "Weapons of Destiny," the ninja follow Garmadon into a portal to the future.

Pilot beat sheet page 1

Ending concept art

Season 1: Rise of the Snakes

• Garmadon is the one to release the Serpentine.

Season 2: Legacy of the Green Ninja

• At the end of "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master," Wu, after seeing Misako and Garmadon reconcile, walks away with the Overlord manifesting inside of him as the screen fades to black.

Season 3: Rebooted

• The season is titled "The Nindroid Agenda."
• "The Titanium Ninja" ends with P.I.X.A.L. looking directly at the camera and the outline of Zane being reflected in her eyes when he asks, "Are we compatible now?"

Season 4: Tournament of Elements

• The Elemental Masters of Magnetism, Crystal, and Sight appear. The Master of Crystal is named "Gazor" while the Master of Magnetism is named "Magno." Masters of Time and Water also appear in the season, with the Master of Water being named "Rayne."

Master of Time

Magno, Master of Magnetism

Season 5: Possession

• There is an inappropriate joke about the Preeminent in "Curseworld, Part II."

Season 6: Skybound

• The Djinn Blade sucks its victims' souls out of their bodies, leaving them as lifeless husks.

Day of the Departed

• Cole and Lou light a lantern for Cole's aunt.
• Nelson accompanies Cole on his journey, which is still reflected in the set 70589 Rock Roader.

Season 7: The Hands of Time

• Acronix and Krux are one character named "Kronos."
  • This is different from the earlier Master of Time conceptualized for Tournament of Elements.
• Chen is revealed to be the mastermind behind the Time Twins' betrayal, having planned for the twins to free him from his banishment on his island after the twins seized power.
  • This concept was later used in Chapter 9 of Way of the Departed.
• In a longer scene in "Lost in Time," young and older Wu briefly interact with each other, and it's explained more clearly how the timeline would be kept intact.
• The seasons ends with the twins arriving forty years in the future.

Deleted scene page 1

Deleted scene page 3

Deleted scene page 2

Season ending concept

Season 8: Sons of Garmadon

• The eighth season acts as more of a continuation of The Hands of Time and does not include Garmadon's resurrection.
• Mr. E is revealed to be Echo Zane.
• The scene where Garmadon rams a garbage truck into the police station in "True Potential" "was gonna be a lot cooler but censors kinda spoiled it."
• Hutchins returns later as a red herring for the Quiet One.

Animatics of Mr. E's reveal as Echo Zane

Season 9: Hunted

• Garmadon resurrects Harumi.

Season 10: March of the Oni

• At the end of "Endings," Garmadon flies away on Firstbourne with the four Golden Weapons to create a new realm as the First Spinjitzu Master had done.

Season 11: Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu

• At the end of "Awakenings," Nya takes control of Boreal with her powers and rips its wings off instead of crushing it with ice.

Season 12: Prime Empire

• Jay's mother is connected to the creation of Prime Empire, powering the game.
  • Also presumably in this season, Jay's mother's relationship with her father is explored.
• There is an episode in which, the Yellow Key-tana would get stolen by the rats. This would lead to the ninja recruiting the League and to enter highly glitchy sewers and face Atta the Ratta. The rat king would be shown as an unfinished mess that could only be remedied by the Keytana. The ninja would agree to let the rats keep the Key-tana temporarily.

Season 13: Master of the Mountain

• Presumably in this season, Lilly's illness is further explored.
• The ending of "The Son of Lilly" has the Geckles and Munce build a statue of Cole next to Lilly's in the Heart of the Mountain. This scene was cut due to running time.
  • Bragi Schut stated that a statue of Cole was built, as far as he's concerned.

Season ending concept page 1

Season ending concept page 2

Season 14: Seabound

• The season is called "The Abyss."

Season 15: Crystalized

• The season was orginally going to be spider-themed as Harumi returned as a spider-like cyborg. But this was overturned due to Monkie Kid already having the idea before the season's release.
• Nadakhan was considered to be a part of the Council of the Crystal King. However, the idea was scrapped since his return would have been too complicated to explain.
  • The plan for his return was for Clutch Powers to drop the Teapot of Tyrahn and it would break, freeing Nadakhan to join the council.
• The original ending of the season has Garmadon actually die, resulting into Lloyd liberating his Oni Form like in the final episode. However, in this scrapped ending, Oni Lloyd would destroy the Overlord rather than with him riding the Golden Ultra Dragon, before taking the Crystal King's throne while completely corrupted by his Oni side. The Ninja would then defeat Lloyd and take away his Oni Form. The concept of Oni Lloyd being in the Crystal King’s throne is still visible in official set images for 71774 Lloyd's Golden Ultra Dragon.

Miscellaneous

• The characters go to a ninja school.
• A statue of the First Spinjitzu Master comes to life to help save Ninjago.
• Rebooted is followed by a season about aliens, which was set up by the Project Arcturus storyline from "Codename: Arcturus" and "The Void."
• Following Zane becoming titanium and Cole becoming a ghost, Jay becomes a master of disguise and Kai becomes a rock fire lava monster when he gets angry.
• Ronin's daughter, a teenager or young adult, is introduced.
• What would come to be Ninjago: Decoded is instead a clip show written by Tommy Andreasen, having a melancholic tone and focusing on Lloyd reading lessons written by Wu in the Book of Spinjitzu.
  • A similar concept was used in Chapter 9 of Way of the Departed.

Statue of the First Spinjitzu Master

Statue of the First Spinjitzu Master

Statue of the First Spinjitzu Master

An Unused Concept for "The Dawn of the Devourers"

Unproduced media

Christmas shorts

In 2012, Tommy Andreasen wrote five Christmas shorts that ultimately went unproduced due to a lack of budget. When he was asked if he still had those shorts he answered he had one but admitted it wasn't great.

Legends of Chima crossover short

Tommy Andreasen wrote a crossover short between Ninjago and Legends of Chima, whose plot would have gone as follows: Watching Legends of Chima on TV, Jay falls asleep and dreams about being on an adventure with Eris. Other ninja and animals show up, and the two groups get into a conflict because of a misunderstanding. Fighting each other, the ninja use Spinjitzu and the animals use CHI, and at one point there is CHI-powered Spinjitzu. Ultimately, Jay wakes up and accidentally calls Nya Eris, angering Nya.

Amber Legacy

Sample art for a Ninjago comic series, possibly Amber Legacy

An unpublished story titled Amber Legacy would have introduced Skylor's mother and explained why she wasn't in the Serpentine War, why she married Chen, and what her ultimate fate was. The story was not released due to the poor distribution of the Dark Island Trilogy. A story titled Amber Spiral, loosely based on Amber Legacy, was later released on LEGO.com in 2022.

Female-led spinoff series

At some point, possibly after Skybound, there were plans to have a female-led spinoff series that focused on Skylor, Nya, P.I.X.A.L., and a new character, with Ronin acting as the antagonist.

Pilot remake

Tommy Andreasen proposed that the pilot episodes would be remade as a movie for the 10th Anniversary of the series, but the budget didn't allow it.

Monkie Kid crossover

Tommy Andreasen wrote a treatment for a crossover between Ninjago and Monkie Kid where Ninjago was more of a framing device. In it, "The ninja would find themselves pinned down in a difficult situation and Wu would tell them a story MK which inspired them to fight back in diffferent clever ways."

Tea Time Terror

The fifth Spinjitzu Brothers book, focusing on Garmadon and Wu's formative years. It was about Wu and Garmadon discovering a tea brewery, believing the owners have a tea plant that can cure Garmadon from the Devourer's bite. It was canceled and replaced with a LEGO DreamZzz book. It was never written.

Unreleased sets

Lloyd's treehouse fortress

Main article: Lloyd's treehouse fortress

A prototype for Lloyd's treehouse fortress was designed but ultimately never developed into a set.^{[citation needed]}

Serpentine Express

Main article: Serpentine Express

The designers were originally going to include the Serpentine Express in the second Rise of the Snakes wave of sets, but, according to Simon Lucas, it was ultimately not produced because there were many other great options to choose from, such as the Samurai Mech.

LEGO designer Mark Stafford displayed a model of the Serpentine Express at AFOLCON in 2012, though this model was not made with the intention of being released.

Mark Stafford's model

Vermillion Swamp

The designers were originally going to include the Vermillion Swamp in the Hands of Time wave of sets, but it eventually didn't last to the final release.

70630 Monastery of Ice

A set called 70630 Monastery of Ice would have involved the ninja visiting the home of a scientist who worked on combining elemental powers in his lab. The set was not produced because it was never integrated into a storyline in the TV series.

Tommy Andreasen has stated that The Splinter in the Blind Man's Eye is based on the synopsis he wrote on for "an unreleased Ice Temple set", which may refer to this set.

40471 Twitchy Tim's Bizarre Adventure

According to Niek van Slagmaat, Twitchy Tim was going to be part of a minifigure accessory set, but it was canceled due to a bottle neck in production. It would have been named "Twitchy Tim's Bizarre Adventure." The set would have comprised of 58 pieces and would have included Island Lloyd, Twitchy Tim, PoulErik, and a Thunder Keeper.

Seabound Kai Mech

According to Niek van Slagmaat, this was the prototype design for a Kai mech that was meant to be featured in the Season 14: Seabound wave. The mech was described as being, "More crab like and has torpedo bays with spring loaded shooters and little doors." It was ultimately changed and recycled into the smaller 71750 Lloyd's Hydro Mech

Legacy Ghost Mech

According to Niek van Slagmaat, this was the prototype design for a Ninjago: Legacy version of the Ghost Mech from 70737 Titan Mech Battle. The set was intended to be a companion for 71738 Zane's Titan Mech Battle and was a contender for the 2021 "retailer exclusive Legacy bad guy" set. 71742 Overlord Dragon was ultimately chosen over the Ghost Mech.