The original plan for Disney’s Frozen would have seen Elsa as the villain, and this would have resulted in a significantly different—and likely less successful—story. The House of Mouse had played around with the idea of adapting Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen since as early as the 1930s, but it wasn’t until the better part of a century later that a solid concept began development. Still, this was very different from the version of Frozen that audiences know and love because, instead of a tragically misunderstood hero, Queen Elsa would have been a spiteful villain.
The 2013 film Frozen was a massive success. Though initially meant as another installment in the Disney Princess Franchise, Anna and Elsa’s story evolved into its very own entity. A Disney movie that didn’t center around romantic love was quite a change, and the House of Mouse used audiences’ expectations against them by turning Anna’s love interest into a ruthless villain. Frozen 2 (2019) was arguably an even greater success, and Frozen 3 takes the sister’s story even further. Ultimately, it’s likely that none of this would ever have happened if Disney’s original plan had made it to the screen.
Elsa Was Originally Planned To Be Frozen’s Villain
In the 2014 ABC special, The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic, it was revealed that Elsa was originally supposed to be a villain. This aligned more with the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, The Snow Queen, which tells of an evil queen who shattered a cursed mirror so that the shards would fall into people’s eyes and cause them to see only the evil of the world. The story that screenwriters Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee had originally conceived significantly differed from this, but it still kept Queen Elsa as the fairytale’s titular evil Snow Queen.
In this version of Frozen, Anna and Elsa wouldn’t have been siblings. Instead, the red-headed girl Buck and Lee created would have been a peasant girl who would travel to the Snow Queen’s castle after having her heart broken, hoping that the chilly sorceress would freeze her heart and end the pain. However, it was determined that this was too similar to other Disney Princess movies (such as Ariel seeking Ursula’s help in The Little Mermaid), and the idea was scrapped. Ultimately, thanks to the creation of the song “Let It Go,” the concepts surrounding Elsa’s Frozen character began to shift.
Who Was Originally Going To Voice Elsa (Not Idina Menzel)
In addition to being an entirely different character, Elsa was initially supposed to be voiced by a different actor. Idina Menzel’s performance in Frozen perfectly reflected Elsa’s inner power concealed by a lack of confidence, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing “Let It Go.” However, when Elsa was supposed to be a sassy Snow Queen, Megan Mullally was cast for the role. Best known for playing Karen Walker in Will & Grace, comedian Mullally would likely make an excellent Disney villain. However, when it became clear that the emotionally powerful “Let It Go” would become the anthem of Frozen, the studio made the change.
Elsa Looked Different In Original Frozen Plans
The Snow Queen underwent several design changes before eventually becoming the recognizable girl with a silver braid. The concept art by Claire Keene revealed a rather flamboyant character robed in an elegant coat made of living weasels. Her skin and hair would have been blue, and nearly every iteration of this character included a wide and evil grin. As Elsa became a more sympathetic villain, she turned into a character that looks much like how audiences know her in Frozen, though she had black spikey hair. Finally, when Buck and Lee realized that Elsa would be a hero, her final form was developed.
How Elsa Being Frozen’s Villain Would Change The Story
The overarching plot of the Frozen movies hinges on Anna and Elsa being sisters. In the first film, Anna’s sacrifice for Elsa wound up being the act of true love that was needed to thaw a frozen heart. This was the twist that truly made the Disney film stand out from its Princess predecessors. Additionally, as a villain, Hans diverted the standard fairytale tropes, especially since there was very minimal foreshadowing for his big plot twist. Going into Frozen 2, Anna and Elsa’s parents were revealed to have been from warring nations, and their love for each other was the reason Elsa was given her gift to begin with.
Ultimately, if Elsa had remained the villainous Snow Queen as Disney had planned, none of this would have been true. Though we can’t know for sure what the ending of the film’s original story would have been, it seems as if it would fall within the predictable realm of Disney’s past stories. Since Anna, a lowly peasant with a broken heart, was meant to seek out a remedy from the Snow Queen, it can be assumed she would have eventually regretted her decision and would have been rescued by a more traditional act of true love. This might have been a cute story, but it couldn’t compete with what Disney eventually landed on.
Frozen Probably Would Not Have Been As Successful With Elsa As The Villain
When Buck and Lee decided that Elsa would be a sympathetic character who made a few bad decisions rather than an all-out villain, they had to decide what to do with Anna. Since she originally had nothing to do with the Snow Queen, Disney had to devise a way to bring these two characters together. Of course, the screenwriters eventually came up with the idea of making the pair sisters. They couldn’t have known it yet, but this would end up being the detail that placed Frozen in a league all its own.
The touching relationship between Anna and Elsa is the foundation of the Frozen movies, and without it, they probably wouldn’t have performed nearly as well. In 2014, Disney had just burst into the age of 3D animation with Tangled, and they were under a lot of pressure to bring something fresh and new to the stage with such a promising medium. By turning Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen on its head, Disney took quite a risk with Frozen. However, a couple of sequels and several years later, it’s hard to imagine Elsa’s story any different.
