Just as with scripts, movie concept artists go through many a draft until they get the final approval for their character portrayals. Take Shrek for example. A recent photo posted to Reddit revealed that our favorite green ogre with a hero’s heart started out looking more like the star of ‘Coneheads.’ And Yoda, ‘Star Wars” supreme Jedi master, was originally depicted as a combination of hobbit and elf from the upcoming ‘Hobbit‘ trilogy.

It’s safe to say that if things had gone differently — maybe if one day Pixar studio reps had drank too much coffee than usual and approved the wrong sketches — all these classic characters, from ‘X-Men‘ mutants to Woody and Buzz in ‘Toy Story,’ wouldn’t have looked the way they do today.

So, just for fun, we’ve tracked down some early (and we mean early) movie concept art and sketches to see what was going on in these artists’ heads when they first started imagining characters into existence.

Shrek, ‘Shrek’

Shrek early concept art
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Yoda, ‘Star Wars’

Yoda early concept art
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Chewbacca, ‘Star Wars’

Chewbacca early concept art
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Jabba the Hutt, ‘Star Wars’

Jabba the Hut early concept art
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Silver Surfer, ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’

Silver Surfer early concept art
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Whiplash, ‘Iron Man 2′

'Iron Man 2' early concept art
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Beast, ‘X-Men: First Class’

Beat early concept art
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Azazel, ‘X-Men: First Class’

Azazel early concept art
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Emma Frost, ‘X-Men: First Class’

Emma Frost early concept art
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Spider-Man, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’

Spider-Man early concept art
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Neytiri, ‘Avatar’

Neytiri early concept art
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The Kraken, ‘Clash of the Titans’

Kraken early concept art
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Ravenna, ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’

'Snow White and the Huntsman' early concept art
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Hagrid, ‘Harry Potter’

Hagrid early concept art
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The Caterpillar, ‘Alice in Wonderland’

'Alice in Wonderland' Caterpillar early concept art
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The Mad Hatter, ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Mad Hatter early concept art
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Hopper, ‘A Bug’s Life’

'A Bug's Life' early concept art
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Buzz Lightyear, ‘Toy Story’

Buzz Lightyear early concept art
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