In the original Lost pilot episode, Jack was supposed to die in a shocking, last-minute twist, and he would have been played by Michael Keaton. Through six seasons, Jack Shephard was the main protagonist of the show and the leader of the core group of Flight 815 survivors who crashed on the island.
Jack (Matthew Fox) was introduced as a spinal surgeon who left Australia for Los Angeles to bring his deceased father’s body back home for his funeral. After the plane crash, Jack found himself making decision for the survivors, and before long, they were all looking to him to lead. Over the first few seasons, Jack developed a will-they-won’t-they dynamic with Kate (Evangeline Lilly), an antagonistic relationship with Sawyer (Josh Holloway) that eventually grew to a mutual respect, and deep philosophical differences with Locke (Terry O’Quinn), who disagreed with Jack’s skeptical beliefs about destiny and the island.
All of these storylines would have been radically different if Lost went with its original idea for the pilot episode. The pilot was to star Michael Keaton as Jack, but this was far from its only difference. In Lost pilot that aired on TV, Jack, Kate, and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) went into the jungle to find the cockpit of the plane. While there, the smoke monster killed the co-pilot (Greg Gunberg), but Jack, Kate, and Charlie survived. In the original pilot, however, Jack would have died in place of the co-pilot.
Though Jack was supposed to die, he was still going to be presented as the lead, just as he was in the final version. His death was to be sudden and shocking, and something that would let viewers know that no one was safe. According to Keaton, he liked the idea behind the twist and was fine with playing the character, especially since it was only for the pilot episode. But the producers eventually decided that audiences were going to like Jack, and that it would be better to keep him. So when the pilot was reworked to keep Jack alive as the lead, Keaton passed on the role, as he wasn’t interested in shooting full seasons.
There’s no telling how different Lost would be if Jack had died early. While it’s certainly true that Lost was an ensemble show where no one character defined the series, Jack’s six-season journey from being a skeptical, hard-headed leader to a big believer in destiny - someone who was willing to sacrifice his life for the island - was integral to the story.
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