Elf Christmas movie plagued by scandals from 'banned' shower scene to Will Ferrell feud

Elf is the ultimate Christmas classic and has been ever since it first came out in 2003 - and the cult festive hit has more than a few murky secrets behind the scenes

Elf may be the ultimate Christmas film, but behind-the-scenes scandals meant a sequel was never made. The 2003 flick has been a firm favourite since its release, with Will Ferrell's Buddy the Elf becoming an iconic character.

However, despite its heartwarming story, there were some shocking secrets and scandals that rocked the Hollywood set. From feuds to child actors being sacked, the cheerful Christmas film could have looked very different.

Here are five offscreen dramas that might surprise fans - and the reason why there may never be a sequel. 1.

The script for Elf was penned in 1993 with Grinch star Jim Carrey envisioned for the lead role. At the time, he was yet to become a household name with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, but by the time the project got the go-ahead a decade later, Jim had moved on.

Since its release in 2003, Elf has become a beloved staple on the Christmas movie circuit(Image: Netflix)

This led to Saturday Night Live comedian Will Ferrell stepping into one of his first roles post-SNL. 2, reports the Mirror.

It seems you're never too young to get the boot, as demonstrated when twin boys, both with curly blonde hair, were shown the door. The babies were supposed to play a young Buddy and smile and crawl on cue, but instead, they just cried. Eventually, brunette triplet girls had to be brought in to replace them.

Buddy loved maple syrup with everything - Will, not so much(Image: Rex)

Buddy's love for the sweet stuff turned sour for actor Will, who faced brutal headaches and downright dreadful insomnia because of his sugary on-screen antics. "That was tough. I ingested a lot of sugar in this movie and I didn't get a lot of sleep," he confessed to The Sun.

"I constantly stayed up. But anything for the movie, I'm there. If it takes eating a lot of maple syrup, then I will - if that's what the job calls for."

Zooey Deschanel wasn't initially slated to portray Jovie, Buddy's other half and the unwilling Gimbel's elf. It was only after the first-choice actress withdrew that Zooey got her chance.

Will Ferrell and Zoe Deschanel star as odd couple Buddy and Jovie in 'Elf' 2003(Image: Warner Bros)

"I went in as a backup. The person they cast couldn't do it," she spilled to Variety. Interestingly, she nabbed the role with blonde locks, an anomaly given her natural brunette tinge.

"A lot of the parts I got early in my career, I was filling in for someone else who had dropped out last minute," she remarked. Regarding her hairdo during Elf: "What is funny is I had dyed my hair for a screen test for a movie that never happened," Zooey explained.

"I had a meeting for Elf while I was blonde, and I asked them if I could dye my hair back brown. They said, 'No, we want you to look the way you did in your audition.'"

Zooey Deschanel shared the story behind the 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' shower scene in 'Elf.'(Image: Warner Bros)

And who can forget the infamous shower scene? That's when Buddy accidentally stumbles upon Jovie's knockout vocals as she belts out Baby, It's Cold Outside in the shower.

"I didn't know you were naked in the shower," he tells a shocked Jovie as she wraps herself in the shower curtain. However, some viewers weren't convinced and argued that Buddy was fully aware of his actions.

"Buddy does know what a shower is, and he most certainly knew she was naked!" one fan posted on Reddit. "Buddy was actually trying to peep on Zooey while she was in the shower," the fan continued." And played his fetish off as innocence."

Other viewers criticised the 'woke' backlash, and Zooey responded by defending the film and the intentions behind that scene. "It's funny because obviously everyone knows it's not appropriate to walk in the girls' bathroom when someone's showering, but he's so believable as this guileless elf," she said. "It's weird he's in there, but you totally buy that his intentions are pure and innocent."

There was an off-camera feud(Image: Rex)

The 'feud' that killed the sequel: Will once confessed that he rejected a whopping $29million offer to film a sequel, telling The Guardian: "I killed the idea of a sequel. $29m does seem a lot of money for a guy to wear tights, but it's what the marketplace will bear."

So, what went wrong? According to actor James Caan, who portrayed Buddy's dad Walter Hobbs, there won't be a second movie due to an alleged spat between Will and director Jon Favreau. "We were gonna do it and I thought, 'Oh my God, I finally have a franchise movie. I can make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do,'" James previously told US radio show, The Fan in Cleveland.

"The director and Will didn't get along very well. Will wanted to do it, and he didn't want the director, and he had it in his contract. It was one of those things."

There were talks of a sequel

In 2016, Jon Favreau expressed that a sequel would be a 'big gamble'. "If I don't do anything I'd be very happy with what it is. The minute you take it on, you try to add on to something, you always run the risk of diminishing from the original," he shared with Yahoo! movies.

"I do have tremendous fondness for that film and you don't want to do anything to screw up the legacy of it."

For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here .