Does anyone think those three characters in the Cancelled Wii Title (not Radiant Dawn) could have been Stefan, Ilyana, and Rhys?

[King Marth 64]

I was looking through those screenshots that was used in the 25th Anniversary Book that reveals the cancelled Wii Title that was suppose to be planned to be released after Radiant Dawn came out in 2007. I definitely know that the continent that was used in that cancel game doesn't look it was Tellius at all, but it suppose to be a brand new continent. But I definitely see those three characters showed up in the screenshots looked alot like Stefan, Ilyana, and Rhys (we can't see the hair due to the hood on, but it outfit looks alot like his, but it had some red stuff in the clothing since the ingame models and artwork had Rhys had some blue in his clothing). They never specified that what was those three characters' roles suppose to be used in the Cancelled Wii Title.

Do you guys think Intelligent Systems had planned on putting Stefan, Ilyana, and Rhys as Recurring Characters in that cancelled Wii Title similar to like the three Awakening characters that appeared in Fates such as:

Spoiler

Inigo, Owain, and Severa are recurring in Fates as Laslow, Odin, and Selena

or do you think Intelligent System had planned those three characters were most likely completely different characters that looked like the three Tellius characters?

If you haven't seen the screenshot of the Cancelled Wii Project what it looked like when they're there. They showed up in Imperial Capital: Grisstal and the Village.

https://gonintendo.com/stories/249223-more-details-on-the-cancelled-fire-emblem-wii

Edited April 20, 2021 by King Marth 64

[vanguard333]

Those three were almost-certainly just there as temporary placeholders since the models and assets for them already existed. They were likely chosen for being vaguely similar to the actual characters that were planned to be in the game. I especially think this is the case because the images with them in it are the closest to looking at actual in-game concept footage (and probably are in-game concept footage), while the rest is obviously concept art, and they are also clearly shown as the only player-controlled characters. If they were actually going to be in the game, they wouldn't be alone.

More to the point, neither Stefan, Ilyana, or Rhys are ever presented in the Tellius games as having any reason to, well, leave Tellius. Stefan would come the closest, but his Radiant Dawn ending reveals that he ends up turning his Branded settlement into an independent kingdom within Tellius.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Developers use placeholders from older games not infrequently, they usually hide them deep in the data or remove them entirely from the final product.

There was that Arwing in Ocarina of Time's data. And for Dinosaur Planet, the game that became Star Fox Adventures, had a recently leaked beta version where Fox in dialogue is both himself and also Sabre, the character he replaced, the transition to Star Fox Adventures not yet complete. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne had unused 3D models of Lisa Silverman and Maya Amano from Persona 2 in its data. Metroid Fusion had jewel pieces from Wario Land 4 in its data, suggesting they possibly share a game engine. 

Therefore, it's far safer to say that IS had conceived of a world and a gameplay concept for "Fire Emblem Wii", but were still up in the air about the story. I speculate they didn't want to commit resources to the story or at least making models of its OC characters in the game itself until they had reached the point that the game would for better or worse be developed to completion. Since the game was very experimental -a real-time FE- they never got to that phase, because they never had a clear enough vision of what final form the gameplay would take.

Edited April 20, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Dandy Druid]

They're an odd trio - I can't imagine why they would pick those 3 together... unless they were placeholders. I could see Stefan being the placeholder for the "Lord", Ilyana as the original girl, and Rhys as our starter healer, which would've been a guy.

Regardless, the world they started to make had potential. I hope they come back to this idea. I know they sorta did with SoV, Awakening, and Three Houses, but they now have the tech, money, and resouces to make this title fully realized (probably axed for budget reasons).

[vercio]

I never noticed it, but now that I read the OP I kinda agree!