Insomnia Cafe, Montauk and Cave Game: What Famous Shows Were Almost Called
Hardly any show, game or film keeps the name it started with. Titles change because of trademarks, because a rival used something similar, because a market overseas needs a different word, or because the story itself changes during production. The working titles behind the quizzes on this site are a good way to see how much a project can shift before it reaches an audience.
Friends went through four names
David Crane and Marta Kauffman first pitched their sitcom to NBC in December 1993 as Insomnia Cafe, a seven-page treatment. They wrote the pilot in three days as Friends Like Us. NBC changed that to Six of One, because Friends Like Us sounded too close to the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine. Only after further rewrites did it become simply Friends. See the Friends quiz.
Seinfeld dropped "Chronicles" after another show failed
The 1989 pilot was called The Seinfeld Chronicles. The show was later renamed Seinfeld, partly as a precaution after a similarly titled ABC sitcom, The Marshall Chronicles, failed in 1990. More in the Seinfeld quiz.
Stranger Things started in a real town
The Duffer Brothers' show was first called Montauk and set in the real town on Long Island, a place linked to conspiracy theories and to Jaws, where it stood in for Amity Island. Moving the story to the invented town of Hawkins, Indiana, let them do things they could not imagine doing to a real place, such as putting it under quarantine. The new title was chosen because it sounded like a Stephen King novel. See the Stranger Things quiz.
Pokémon could not trademark its first name
Satoshi Tajiri's project was first called Capsule Monsters, inspired by Ultraseven, a show in which the hero throws capsules that release miniature monsters. Staff shortened it to Capumon. That name could not be trademarked, so it became Pocket Monsters, shortened in Japan to Pokemon. For the international release, Alfred Kahn of 4Kids suggested adding the accent over the "e" to help with pronunciation and, in his words, "give it a little flair". The Pokémon quiz has more.
Minecraft began as Cave Game
Markus Persson's first build had only grass and cobblestone blocks to place and remove, and it was called Cave Game. It became Minecraft once he posted it on the TIGSource forums, and he kept updating it based on what players said. See the Minecraft quiz.
Money Heist has had three titles
Álex Pina's series was developed as Los Desahuciados, "The Evicted". It aired in Spain as La casa de papel, "The House of Paper". When Netflix dubbed it for English-speaking viewers it became Money Heist, a name one critic at Haaretz called bland. More in the Money Heist quiz.
Demon Slayer swapped one word
Koyoharu Gotouge's manga had the working title Kisatsu no Yaiba. The team felt that the character satsu, meaning "kill", was too blunt, so they replaced it with the made-up but easy-to-grasp word kimetsu, giving Kimetsu no Yaiba. See the Demon Slayer quiz.
Disney's long list of working titles
Walt Disney Animation Studios has more renamed films than almost anyone. The Emperor's New Groove began as a musical epic called Kingdom of the Sun before being cut down to a smaller comedy. Home on the Range was known for years as Sweating Bullets, and Bolt began as American Dog.
Two of the studio's biggest hits were renamed for a commercial reason. After The Princess and the Frog (2009) underperformed, part of the blame was put on the word "Princess" in its title. Films in production about princesses were given gender-neutral titles instead: Rapunzel became Tangled, and The Snow Queen became Frozen. See the Disney quiz.
Titles changed for overseas readers and viewers
Some changes happen at the border. In the United States, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone became Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Scholastic worried that American readers would not connect the word "philosopher" with magic, and it was Rowling herself who suggested "Sorcerer's". She has since said she regrets it.
The 2010 film of Avatar: The Last Airbender was released as just The Last Airbender to avoid confusion with James Cameron's Avatar. See the Harry Potter and Avatar quizzes.
Titles the author did not like
J. R. R. Tolkien disliked the title The Return of the King because he felt it gave away the ending, but he deferred to his publisher. He had proposed others, such as The War of the Ring. He was also unsure which two towers The Two Towers referred to, and considered several pairs before settling on Minas Morgul and Orthanc. More in the Lord of the Rings quiz.
Titles added afterwards
The first Star Wars film was released in 1977 simply as Star Wars. The subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope first appeared in the 1979 book The Art of Star Wars, after the film's success led George Lucas to plan a much longer series. See the Star Wars quiz.
Titles meant to keep secrets
Productions sometimes film under code names. HBO's The Last of Us filmed its second season as Mega Sword and began its third, in March 2026, as Calm Current. See the Last of Us quiz.
Why it matters
A working title is a snapshot of what the creators thought they were making at the time. Insomnia Cafe was a show about a place; Friends was a show about people. Montauk was tied to a real town; Stranger Things was free to invent. Kingdom of the Sun was an epic; The Emperor's New Groove was a comedy. The changes in name often mark the moment a project found what it was really about.
Sources: the English Wikipedia articles on Friends, Seinfeld, Stranger Things, Pokémon, Minecraft, Money Heist, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and The Last of Us (TV series), as cited in each quiz's answer key.