The Thomas & Friends Movie That ALMOST Happened 

IMPORTANT FOOTNOTES AND MISC FACTS: - Josh Klausner did not write Shrek the Third; he just wrote additional material for the movie. - The only characters from the original series that would’ve appeared are the Steam Team. All of the other characters, including the diesels, are all new characters created for the movie. - Fun fact: The movie’s original title from the first draft was “Thomas the Tank Engine” before being changed to “The Adventures of Thomas” during pre-production. - I don’t have a copy of the first draft script; every bit of new info came from Josh himself. Even if I did, I couldn’t release it legally. - Please be respectful when talking about the crew members involved with the movie’s production! They were paid to do a job and while the movie didn’t go anywhere, they’re still people at the end of the day.

“Rejection can be God’s protection”

At least there were people in All Engines Go

Dawg this is WILD--Nazi diesels, a completely train-centric steampunk fantasy version of Sodor, a fuckin' handcart/pump trolley character, ze French Resistance Minecarts, the story being about a father and son during the Blitz in WWII... this would have been an amazing movie, and I still want to see someone turn this concept into a proper film. It reminds me of the 2011 Little Engine That Could quite a lot. It just... REALLY wouldn't have worked as a Thomas the Tank Engine movie. As intriguing and fascinating as this is, this would probably have killed the franchise in its tracks. (No pun intended.) I really hope someone is able to find the first draft script itself, because I truly wanna read this story.

Part of the problem of Magic Railroad is that it had a bizarre tone and took itself way too seriously. I feel like this movie would have the same problem, albeit to a greater degree. Seems like it would have felt like Transformers, causing even more confusion for the audience.

Glad this didn't come into fruition ngl

Imagine if this movie came out. It would've been an absolute train wreak (not sorry) Amazing video! Cheers, and keep up the good work!

I guess I'm in the minority in thinking this movie would've been awesome. A dark-fantasy, steampunk reimagining of Thomas the Tank Engine from the director of 9? I need this.

I agree with you. I would have loved to see this movie but it ain't really Thomas that we know of

Not even gonna lie, it was a good idea that this film was cancelled. Idk if it's just me, but the plot feels like TATMR with tweaks

mattel literally saved us that time

7:11 this makes sense because Dieselpunk is the style used when creators want to depict (please excuse my artsy talk) a N*tzi-esque dystopia

Fascinating! As cool as some of the ideas present here sound, seems like this movie would have fallen into some of the same trappings as Magic Railroad did. Doesn't seem like proper "Thomas" in any regard, but still an intriguing take on its world. It's definitely different! Thanks for sharing this info!

"A world of just trains without people," Immediately not understanding the source material.

There is so much potential in a story where a human being looking for their place in the world has a life-changing experience on the island of sodor. These movies need people in them! Workers, passengers, leaders, relatable protagonists, everybody.

okay you know what maybe we dodged a missile actually

This movie script is by no means a bad concept But it is not a good Thomas concept They almost made the same mistake Magic Railroad did, having Sodor be in its own universe separate from the real world

What is it with Hollywood always placing these kids franchises in a separate world from our world Like what’s so wrong with putting the island off the coast of the UK instead of some far away fantasy land

2 things I like are how Edward is the first engine the audience meets since he was the first engine created, and how the faces would have had the smokebox doors which I think is a cool idea. Other than that, this script just isn't Thomas, it's just a weird Train fantasy film that uses characters and goes against what the grounded elements that made the Railway Series appealing. Even the Hit Era was more grounded than this.

French minecarts organizing a resistance against the diesels... You can't make this shit up

Wait a minute. A child fleeing the blitz traveling to a small town and finding a character who leads them to a fantasy world that is at war with an evil army that the child can travel to and from throughout the movie...isn’t this just Narnia with trains?

I’m glad that we didn’t get this movie. Because despite having the characters in it, it doesn’t even feel like a Thomas film in the slightest

After hearing the overall plot of the movie... it sounds more like a Thomas fanfic you would find on RU-vid. Heck it sounds like a more steam punk esk version of Magic Railroad with Sodor being a seprate world but minus humans. However, I will say that it's great to know all this new information on the overall plot of the film, from someone who actually worked on the movie. And the visual interpretations look really good. Kudos to the people behind those. All that's left to find is the concept art and the script. All of which was said to be completed. An overall well done video. 👍

This was definitely NOT what I expected the plot to be about. I mean, when you hear the words "Thomas and Friends", "World War 2" and "Movie" in the same sentence, you would think "Oh cool! We're gonna get to see what Sodor was like during the world wars!" BUT NOPE!!! Instead we get the most bizarre plotline that makes TATMR look like a treat compared to this fever dream.

The Adventures Of Thomas would basically have been Thomas and The Magic Railroad, but more realistic and have the diesels being portrayed as a certain squared mustached leader trying to take over sodor

When Shrek the Third was mentioned I was bracing for the massive derailment of the plot.

Does this look like an entirely unfaithful interpretation of the original story and characters? Yes. Do I still wish I could’ve seen it, yeah

The fact *Puffing Bully* out of all trains was going to be in this is kinda funny

On one hand, this sounds like it would’ve been an absolute mess and I’m glad we never got it On the other hand, this sounds like it would’ve been an absolute mess and I’m sad we never got it because it would’ve been really really funny

I can't help but feel like had this been released this would have killed the franchise.

To think that Mattel (the company we all hate now), stopped this film from happening is actually kind of a blessing. As you said, this film most likely would have failed miserably and could have killed the franchise, but it seems like Mattel saved it before it was too late so, big win for you Mattel! Lol

Somehow what Thomas & the Magic Railroad did still felts like a major compliment to Thomas since it was created by Britt Alcroft. This just feels like it was trying to hook onto Transformer's Movie feel. Thank God for this not becoming a thing. And i just hope to God that Marc Foster movie will be good

I love both the realism and fantasy of Thomas and this film would've basically been some weird hybrid with it looking realistic, but also being the most... imaginative shall we say.

As much as I like to see a realistic take on Thomas, I think I’m fine that this Thomas movie was never made. The more and more this script goes on, the more ridiculous and insane it becomes. It had a ton of potential to be so good but it would’ve been an absolute box-office failure, as a separate movie it does sound interesting but as a Thomas movie it just wouldn’t work

Insane how they wanted to make new characters instead of. going back and looking at the large collection of characters.

The Thomas Cinematic Universe was stolen from us....

When the first character to appear was Edward, I thought “Oh, cool. That’s kind neat. Giving the original character a little time in the spotlight. Before Thomas inevitably shows up.” And then boy oh boy did it go downhill quickly from there! Thank goodness that movie didn’t get made.

8:06 I can picture it now; It's the finale if the film, all seems lost then a whistle is heard and Gordon comes thundering to the finish line while triumphantly shouting "EXPRESS COMING THROUGH!" And an orchestral version of his theme blares.

As much as I like the idea of a Thomas movie containing much more realistic designs for the engines,, Yeah I think we actually dodged multiple nuclear bombs with this one (like did they learn NOTHING from TATMR??????)

We dodged a bullet. This movie has the same major problem as Magic Railroad. In the original books and early seasons, the Island of Sodor was a real place we could go and visit. Real life events inspired the stories. Engines getting stuck in ditches, mines, and even going through a wall a station isn’t that far fetched because they actually happened. The only thing that was unrealistic was the engines being able to talk. For some reason, Magic Railroad and this movie felt that Sodor had to be this magical place that existed in some other dimension.

On one hand I feel bad that a lot of Shane Acker’s projects were cancelled, but on the other hand I find it interesting that his most well known film 9 was done by the same studio that would go on to animate Thomas around the time his Thomas film was cancelled.

The minute Shane mentioned that it was a world without people made me roll my eyes in my head.

The core drama/lesson of the whole series: Machines don’t change. People do. THAT is the core of the story! Start there.

Honestly sounds like someone watched TATMR and was like “what if WWII, edge and realism??” Even some of the scenes are a near direct copy with the chase scene, reveal of a missing engine, the parental figure not believing in magic until a child close to them shows them, and going into the sunset with Thomas at the end. Interesting…

You know what? Considering the travesty that is Shrek the Third, I'm not surprised at how off the wall the script was. Some writers are just not suited to adapting existing material.

Now, the Marc Forster movie could either end up like this movie, redeem the franchise, or be a complete failure that could kill the Thomas franchise altogether.

(LONG COMMENT!) Okay that was… Interesting. I want to talk about the good parts first I think the setting of WW2 is a great start as we barely if not ever really got any stories of what happened on Sodor during WW2. The two characters moving to the father’s childhood home and Johnny finding the father’s drawings is such a nice reference to Awdry’s childhood (house near a railway) and his drawings. Edward being the first engine introduced is nice too being the first character created by Awdry I think the realistic portrayals of the engines is one big fat check in our books. We’ve all wanted to see the engines in real life and with these digital models being based on the actual designs of their respective basis, I think we all would’ve loved to see that. The character of Squeak is uh, interesting. Not much to say on that. I will admit. Seeing Gordon save the day would be absolutely AWESOME. I do like the end shot where the father and son drive off on Thomas into the distance. A beautiful ending Now for the bad parts. The story begins to derail and fall apart when Edward takes Johnny to Sodor. Just like how the magic railroad is a magical dimension, Sodor is a seperate dimension to real life in this movie too (kind of reminiscent of The Island Song stating something similar, “a land of make believe”). Heck, they may have taken inspiration from that. Using Puffing Billy is such a HUUUUGE missed opportunity to use Skarloey or Neil! What the heck is with HiT and the steamy vs diesel conflict? Why do they like to do it so often? Like, come on! There’s obviously more downsides. But ultimately, what I think lets this movie down (the first draft of it at least) is the big factor of what lead to Magic Railroad’s poor reception in the first place. The lack of realism. As Unlucky Tug states, Thomas was held in such a high regard because of how slower and realistic it was compared to all the other fast flashy kids shows of the 80s. And even in the original RWS books, the artists don’t illustrate the engines doing impossible feats and instead operate just like how normal trains would. “A world of trains without people” literally makes no sense. Trains exist FOR people. People to transport their goods and themselves to other places. Trains by themselves are useless if there’s nothing to transport. Even Chuggington knows that! If you take all that away, engines still need workmen to manufacture and repair them and a crew to drive them. So either way, you can’t have one without the other. There surely has to be SOME sort of real life connection to Sodor than just “otherworldly caves and waterfalls” such as the already established rolling bridge over the Walney channel. SO MUCH WASTED POTENTIAL. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against Magic Railroad-esque headcannons for Sodor. Like what you like, do whatever. It’s just not for me. I prefer to stick to the universe already established by the Awdrys. Even though this is just the first draft, flawed as it is, it still stings me to say, I think they made the right call cancelling it. “This had the potential to either be the greatest thing ever, or another repeat of Magic Railroad” - Unlucky Tug And, in my opinion, I sadly think the latter is more likely the case here.

I gotta say, this Thomas movie being cancelled was bittersweet.

Wow. For once, Mattel made a smart move on canceling this film. I only hope that the one being directed by Marc Forster would be better.

I think we all owe Tatmr a BIG Apology

It’s like they were trying to adapt Thomas in the same way Transformers was adapted. Kinda mind blowing.

I kind of figured the Steam vs Diesel would be an allegory for WW2 conflict somehow in the movie's plot. Steam being the British invention. Diesel of course a Germany invention.

Why would they make the tv show for preschoolers but then turn around and try to make this? That would have been the most infuriating part of the whole thing to me

I agree with you, a few good ideas but I'm glad it was scrapped. The WWII evacuation setting and angle intrigues me and I wonder what a rethink of that might be. Following a child or group of children as they're evacuated to Sodor (which is in the real world), maybe even taken in by the Sir Topham Hatt of that era, could be both an interesting angle to view the island and a good way to frame exposition. Maybe take inspiration from the Railway Children but look at the evacuations with a modern understanding. I wouldn't have any antagonists, just the trains, children, and how they adjust to their new normal. Maybe have talk of the war in the background as something going on, maybe have a season finale episode featuring an air raid by the Nazis and how the characters respond to that, but no "antagonists" like what's pitched here. You could have some genuine emotional moments here. The children worried for their families back home, the engines doing their best in such trying times, the war economy hitting Sodor, maybe even Hatt opening up about his own son on the frontlines. There's some good storytelling potential there.

The face aesthetic description (and the mention of everyone at one point in toys to movie department wanting to hop on the 2007 Transformers movie trend) amongst other aspects gives me the vibe that this would've been a juniorized version of a Bayverse take on Thomas.

OF COURSE the plot must be "steamies good, diesels bad".....

On paper, The Adventures of Thomas has a fascinating plot, buuuuut I'm secretly glad it wasn't made from the draft alone.

Suddenly, the Magic Railway film doesn't seem as bad as it did. If this turned out to be the final film, I reckon it would have divided the fanbase more so than the HIT and CGI Eras did. I'm honestly hoping that the rumoured film Marc Forster's developing is a little more lighthearted and a little more, you know, Thomas.

Good god this would’ve speed ran the end of the franchise. But seeing the way things are now, it might have been a great idea.

It's neat to uncover some lost media including this - but by its plot, this is really a poorly cash-grab of Magic Railroad. And the engines' faces being like this? Just no! The gray faces are what I prefer being so warm, comforting and assuring in a world of escapism (even if in childhood, those shocked faces can be scary on first viewing until getting much older and learning of the expressions). Also, no humans on Sodor, not even STH existing in this - yeah, they didn't appear in MRR, but they STILL acknowledged the authority figure's presence as he and his wife are on holiday. I can understand why the Sodor humans didn't appear going by the fact they were going for live-action actors so seeing them next to an inanimate human/animal figure wouldn't be settling to the viewer's perspective. In short, I'm glad the film didn't go to fruition cause that'll just cause even more disturbing aspects for a lot of fans and people. Nonetheless, you really did a great analysis on the film's backstory!

The faces would've been morphed onto the smokebox doors? That just sounds horrific. Coupled with the very Magic Railroad sounding plot, I'm honestly glad this didn't make it very far.

I'm really happy to see you got to make something so impressive. I can tell a lot of hard work went into making this and congrats on getting Josh to agree to share his resources. Your video work here is not only so well done, it's extremely entertaining. Also a big pat on the back to Fabian and Andrew for bringing their artistic touches to the project. Truth be told, there IS a good story buried somewhere under all the nonsense. Like a man who learns to rekindle the best parts of his youth through the trains? That's absolutely great! But then the stupid diesels vs. steam trope rears its ugly head and the Nazi symbolism...boy we really dodged a bullet not getting this greenlit. Actually makes me happy Mattel snapped up Thomas because Hit...dear lord, what were they smoking? P.S. Thanks for NOT using any crappy gen-AI for this and instead getting real artists to help.

When I first heard of this movie in the early 2010s, I thought this would be a Railway Series accurate movie and the father and son would be Rev. W. Awdry and Christopher and I was disappointed this movie was canceled but after hearing more about the plot of this movie and knowing it was gonna have some outlandish concepts including ones I find very objectionable, I'm now glad this movie never got off the ground. I mean, Sodor being a far away distant land in another realm? A fantasy world entirely inhabited by trains and no human whatsoever? Not even Sir Topham Hatt. A train city inhabited by diesels? And characters completely made up for the movie? Not even the actual diesels from the actual series? I'm not even OK with having Emily in the movie. If there is gonna be a new theatrical Thomas movie, I expect a Thomas/RWS version of the Winnie the Pooh movie Christopher Robin, not Lord of the Rings with trains. Mattel appointed Marc Forster, the guy who directed Christopher Robin to be the director and producer of a new Thomas movie in the works and maybe this will be the Christopher Robin of Thomas.

Thank you for showing us this!

Back in the day, i thought this movie is something that the entire fandom would love to see and cherish with the unique story. Now seeing the "First Draft" of the movie... I'm kinda thankful that this was doomed.

Wow Derek, A really well put together video! Very reminiscent of something by big documentary channels like Defunct-land. I'm glad to finally hear what the movie was going to be about, even If it would've been a bit controversial with in the fandom. The steampunk-y style though reminds me a lot of your old drawings of Thomas and Percy, which probably would have been better designs anyway. Once again, great work on the video and the amount of research you would've had to do for it. Take care!

Man, I wish The Adventures of Thomas could have been a reality. Not because I think the movie would have been good, but because it's so weird and fascinating. And it makes me wonder what an alternate timeline where this movie came out would have looked like. Would the later drafts have fixed many of the problems? How would have the movie been received? How much of the TV show would been affected? Oh well. Maybe it have been bad, maybe it would have been alright, or maybe it would have been an ironic enjoyment. There's no way to know I guess. Great video man!

this sounds like magic railroad in some aspects. The whole dimensional aspect, no people in the Thomas realm, the over-use of actual people in the plot, and new bombastic villain. etc. I’m glad we weren’t graced with those admittedly awful design ideas. Save those for the RU-vid content where it would make more sense

We really dodged a bullet with this one Not a bullet, a fricken nuke! We dodged nuke

So this movie had an insane, borderline incoherent plot, totally deviated from the source material to the point of being unrecognizable , and all the engines would have looked genuinely terrifying.... We dodged a bullet (missile? Nuclear weapon?) there lol. Everyone say thank you to Mattel.

This film reminds me of that film "little engine that could film." This film would have completely destroyed the show. I am so happy this film was canned.

So basically its "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" meets "Sonic Foces". Now I know why Mattel stepped in.

I’m still so shocked that we got this close to getting something like this. Thanks for sharing BTS snippets with me as you worked;) I really want to see more Thomas content from you!

If we’re going through the character design I realize that the faces shared the same style as Shane Acker’s 9 stitchpunk characters

This scene would have been so cool to watch: Thonas and Johnny have their "backs against the wall". Smoke the evil diesel has chased them to the edge of the Aresdale Cliffs... Johnny: Well, I guess this is it then... Thomas: (Puffs) We gave it all we had to the very end at least... Smoke: Muhahaha! I have you now! Sodor is mine! Heil Diesel! Gordon: NOT YET...! Gordon charges in from behind and slams into Smoke's rear end, suddenly biffing him forward. Johnny jumps down from Thomas' cab and switches the points just in time for Smoke to go over the sude of the cliff (instead of Thomas) diwn into the sea and the sharp rocks below... Smoke: NOOOO...! *CRASH! SMASH!* Thomas: Gordon! You came back for us! Gordon: Of course I did, little Thomas! You do remember we agreeded to that alliance...? You help me and I'll help you! Thomas: Right you are!

Is it just me, or did that plot description just sound like the first Narnia book/movie? Escaping a war, travel to a magic place, the whole resistance/war plot. Smoke is just the White Witch. Gordon presumed missing for years, and showing up at the climax is just Aslan. They literally just tried doing Narnia with Thomas characters.

Remember that was a first draft of the movie, things would have been ironed out, but... i think i would be better if its fan made.

you have become a legend, you found out what the movie was about!!! i can sleep well knowing what was gonna be "the adventures of thomas"

Nah you guys. We missed out on Squeak.

Sounded really interesting... But- just- WHY NO TOPHAM HATT!? I don't know, it kinda suffers from one of the same problems Magic Railroad had. No humans, no work for the engines to do anyway

Oddly enough, those designs remind me of a earlier movie, Robots by Blue Sky. I think it's kinda pretty cool aesthetic.

Dude this reminds me of that one TTTE fan animation that is basically Thomas and Friends mixed with Transformers, even the driver of Thomas is a boy named Johnny

Expectation: Thomas fighting in WW2 with a child Reality: Fantasy steampunk film with M A G I C *again*

This makes Thomas and the Magic Railroad look like it came straight from God. Man am I glad that this NEVER happened. I feel bad for Reverend Awdry as his work has completely disintegrated in modern Thomas. This, oh, this would have completely RUINED the franchise though. It removes key characters, it completely re-writes sodor, and its plot has been done before. Only thing that I actually enjoy about this is how it would have used the real-life basis for the engines, as seen with how they made Thomas into an actual E2.

I like how Gordon is just kinda Jesus

That film sounds like a badly written fanfiction from Wattpad lol. Excellent research done in your video though! 👍

I hope it’s full of surprises, as Diesel would say!

The Unlucky Tug once said, in his video about pieces of lost Thomas media, "Of all the entries on this list, this one probably stings the most, because, man, we were robbed here." However, after you described the plot, I'm not sure how Tug would've reacted if this movie actually did come out (one of us will probably have to make the movie ourselves in Trainz or something). However, I am still very curious about the status of the live-action Thomas movie directed by Marc Forster. It was announced way back in late 2020, and we've hardly heard anything about it since then.

Pehapes I’m glad we didn’t get the movie. I think would had been weird to see the engines without their iconic grey faces and Sodor without humans, not even The Fat Controller himself.

Great video, while to be fair this is just a draft and no doubt would've likely drastically changed latter on, but geese this sounds like a worse version of TATMAR, at least in terms of the logic of how the engines and Sodor works, but still WTF is this movie, I think Mattel was smart to can it. Some aspects are interesting I feel like were bases for some of the characters seen latter on in franchise, like Dustin. But seriously how do you look at Thomas and go with this, I've seen fans and even TATMAR/ AEG do more justice to the RWS and the original show, than this film. Let's all pray that Marc Forster knows what he's doing.

Much as I like the baseline idea, I don’t think it would really capture what Thomas the tank engine is, so it might fail

I’m not gonna lie to anyone here. I think this would be been a SICK ASS movie to see. I still hope that maybe someday, they’ll find their way back to this project and bring it to life somehow

I feel like this movie could've been really cool and experimental if the creators researched the subcultures of steampunk and dieselpunk. Then again it could become its own thing, remove all the references to Thomas and make it about an alternate world of steam and diesel powered robots. Liam Vickers could probably do something with the script.

I guess we don’t have to blame MATTEL for canceling the film… All Engines Go!… Your choice I had mixed feelings about this movie now…

Tanzig's Sodor at War miniseries made more sense than this lmao

THE DIESELS WERE NAZIS?! we dodged a nuke

Ya know. I was kinda interested in this movie a few years ago when I heard it was a cancelled production. But now? I’d honestly rather watch TATMR, Miller and AEG over this. (I don’t hate any of the listed eras I just think they could be better)

As a transformers and Thomas fan, I hate this

Thank you for making this video and shedding some light on this never-to-be film from years past. I remember I was so excited when the announcements for this came out back in the early 2010s and super-intrigued by a WWII Thomas film. Looking back now after watching this video, I think we really dodged a bullet with this one. Some of the concepts of this movie reflects that of Thomas and the Magic Railroad with the inclusion of "A world of trains without people" and having a more human-centered storyline rather than a focus on the engines.

Basically a tatmr fever dream Edit: biggest and blackest sounds horrible, glad we didn’t get this