- “NO! It's too late.”
- ―Shame
Shame is a rejected character in an early version of Disney/Pixar's 2015 animated feature film Inside Out and its 2024 sequel, which could have been one of the Emotions in Riley's mind.
Development[]
In early versions of Inside Out, Shame was originally one of the 27 emotions that were chosen by the writers during the development of the first film, originally contemplated to be a male Emotion and one of the few that were in another script, along with Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. But when the number of emotions was reduced to five, Shame was removed.
Subsequently in the development of Inside Out 2, Shame was recovered and reinvented as a female Emotion, and was going to be the fifth new Emotion instead of Nostalgia, and was going to be part of Anxiety's group; additionally, Jason Dreamer revealed that Shame was considered to be the main antagonist of the sequel, since personality wise, she was actively against Riley (unlike all of the other Emotions who genuinely love her and wants the best for her), constantly reminding her of her shortcomings, mistakes and hammering down the idea that she's not good enough. But ultimately, she was ruled out, thus making Anxiety the main antagonist & Nostalgia the 10th emotion.
According to Mark Nielsen and Kelsey Mann, she was discarded because she was a difficult character to redeem, and because shame is not a real emotion in the words of Dacher Keltner, the doctor who helped the Inside Out 2 team.[1]