The Back to the Future trilogy is a beloved classic, but its creation was not without its challenges. From rejected scripts to last-minute casting changes, the making of the trilogy was a wild ride that nearly derailed the entire project. In this article, we explore the surprising story behind the making of Back to the Future and how it changed the face of Hollywood forever.
Across its many years of development and the pratfalls that nearly derailed it along the way, it's not only a minor miracle that Back to the Future was released and is a nearly-perfect movie, but that it was so successful that it gave us one of the best science fiction trilogies of all time.
After being written, Back to the Future was rejected some forty times by the studios in Hollywood, including Disney, who believed some elements were too risqué. Even after it was picked up by Universal, it was suggested the film's title be changed to Space Man from Pluto. Making it to the finish line was a gift, but the troubles didn't end before the cameras started rolling.
Across its three movies, the Back to the Future series had to face some tough choices, replacing multiple actors with other performers to take on some of their iconic roles. Given its ensemble cast, many of whom ended up playing multiple characters across various ages and timelines, it's surprising they only had these characters to change over the course of the films and not more. Even more wild, some of these changes altered Hollywood history forever.
The franchise is, of course, the change from actor Eric Stoltz to Michael J. Fox for the lead role of Marty McFly. It's worth noting that Fox was always the first choice for the film, but due to his filming schedule on the sitcom, there was worry on the part of the show's producers that it would hurt his filming schedule.
When it appeared that Fox wasn't going to be available, instead the team auditioned hundreds of others for the character, including Ben Stiller, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., and others. Eventually, Eric Stoltz was cast in the role, but one of the clashes between him and the production was almost immediate, with Stoltz reportedly taking on a method acting ethos that was grounded and serious, standing in contrast to Zemeckis' lighter tone.
Despite this, production carried on for four weeks, with the team deciding after reviewing footage that Stoltz simply wasn't working out. The decision was made to replace Stoltz with Fox before the actor was even available, with filming still carrying on despite knowing the replacement was imminent. As they say, the rest is history, as Fox's portrayal of Marty McFly remains iconic.
The one that's immediately the most obvious, as Marty McFly's girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, changes unprompted between the first and second film. What's more interesting, though, is that the change from actress Claudia Wells in the first to Elisabeth Shue for Parts II and III wasn't the first time that the role of Jennifer was changed. As noted, Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly and replaced about five weeks into production on the movie.
What gets lost in the story of Stoltz being replaced by Michael J. Fox, though, is that the role of Jennifer Parker also had to be changed. Originally, actress Melora Hardin was cast in the role of Jennifer, a pairing that made sense because her 5'7″ height put her just below Eric Stoltz at 6′. When Stoltz was fired, though, and Fox was hired, it created an issue where Marty's girlfriend was immediately three inches taller than him.
As a result, she was also let go for being too tall compared to the new Marty. The story behind Claudia Wells not appearing in the sequels is less dramatic, as the actress decided to step away from Hollywood to help her mother after a health diagnosis.
The franchise that still surprises fans of the series even forty years later is the one that was perhaps the most consequential, changing not only the franchise itself but forcing Hollywood to create new rules that remain in place to this day. As we know, Crispin Glover was the original actor to play George McFly, making the character's journey from mousey to confident one of the era's greatest supporting performances.
To that end, when the script for the sequel arrived, Glover was reportedly unhappy with it, and also asked for a substantial raise to reprise his role. However, the studios weren't interested in making story changes or coughing up more cash, and decided to go another way, replacing Glover with actor Jeffrey Weissman.
Now, normally, it wouldn't be a big deal to change the actors in the role, as the team had clearly already done, but in recasting Glover with Weissman, the team decided to do something else to trick the audience. George McFly has limited involvement in the second film, so to mask that it was a different actor the team flipped him upside down for his entire appearance and built a facial prosthetic to make him appear older.
The trouble, of course, is that the facial prosthetics created were built from a mold of Glover's face, making Weissman appear like the actor and officially putting the production in legal jeopardy. Glover filed a lawsuit against Universal and the producers of Back to the Future, though it was settled out of court before it could get to trial
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