Almost 20 years after the broadcast of its first episode, a surfer has managed to get his hands on images of the alternative pilot of “Les Freres Scott”. A video that allows us to discover the actress who should have played the character of Haley.
Broadcast between 2003 and 2012 on The WB and then on The CW, Les Frères Scott quickly became a cult series that marked an entire generation. A success that is mainly due to the endearing characters and their interpreters. It is also very difficult to imagine that Haley, Brooke, Peyton, Lucas and Nathan could have been played by different actors. And yet, that is what nearly happened.
In the original The Brothers Scott pilot, which never aired, the character played by Bethany Joy Lenz did not exist. The best friend of Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) had to be totally different from the one we know, since instead of Haley, we could indeed find the character of Reagan, who was described as a tomboy.
It was actress Samantha Shelton who was to play her. But after shooting the pilot, the production decided to remove this character and replace it with Haley’s. The scenes in which the actress appeared had therefore been returned with Bethany Joy Lenz. The most observant fans had also noticed that the character of Reagan appeared in certain passages of the first episode of The Brothers Scott.
And for nearly 20 years, no one had been able to see this alternate pilot…until today. Indeed, a video showing excerpts from scenes shot with Reagan’s character was posted on Tiktok by thepeterandri. In his editing, the Internet user contrasted the scenes with Samantha Shelton and those with Bethany Joy Lenz.
And watching these excerpts, we can’t help but think that the production did well to change its tune by recasting this character, as the lack of chemistry between Lucas and Reagan is blatant. One thing is certain, if the creator had chosen to keep this character, Les Frères Scott would have been very different from what we know today.
Find Les Frères Scott from Monday to Friday from 12:25 p.m. on TFX. All 9 seasons are available in full on Amazon Prime Video.