10 Things You Didn’t Know About LOST

It’s been ten years since we first met the castaways of Oceanic Flight 815. To celebrate the anniversary of the show’s premiere, some of our favorite characters, including Sawyer, Hurley, Sun, and Desmond, joined co-creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse at this year’s PaleyFest in Los Angeles. In between speculation about the smoke monster and stories about living in Hawaii, the cast and crew let us in on a few secrets from the six seasons of the ABC hit show.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse with Josh Holloway

Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Despite being the first actor cast, Ian Somerhalder was the very first series regular to die on the show. Ian didn’t find out his fatal destiny until weeks before the scene was shot.
2. He was given a male character name on the show, but Vincent the dog is actually female.

Ian Somerhalder, Malcolm David Kelley, Josh Holloway, Yunjin Kim, Henry Ian Cusick and Jorge Garcia

3. Jack Shephard, played by Matthew Fox, was originally supposed to die at the end of the pilot episode. The creative team later changed their mind and made Jack the central character of the entire series.
4. During the casting process, Jorge Garcia came in and read for the role of Sawyer. He went on to star as Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes. Yunjin Kim auditioned for the role of Kate Austen. She eventually landed the role of Sun Kwon, a character producers developed specifically for Yunjin.
5. When the final episode wrapped production, Executive Producer Damon Lindelof ended up taking home the door of the hatch as a memento. He turned it into a coffee table. One of the other Executive Producers, Carlton Cuse, walked away with the countdown clock prop from inside the hatch.

Ian Somerhalder and Maggie Grace

6. Josh Holloway, the actor who portrayed Sawyer, actually wore his own boots for the entire series. He had them for years before production ever started.
7. Nikki and Paulo, characters introduced in Season 3, were immediately rejected by fans of the show. The creators quickly realized that while the actors were outstanding, the characters needed to be written out of the show. Their multi-season storyline was condensed to just six episodes.
8. The actor who played John Locke, Terry O’Quinn, lived close enough to the set that he would walk to work on many days of the production.

Jorge Garcia, Henry Ian Cusick, executive producer Damon Lindelof, Yunjin Kim, executive producerCarlton Cuse, Ian Somerhalder, Maggie Grace, Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelley and moderator Paul Scheer

9. The idea for a group of people already living on the island was developed early on in the series. Writers didn’t formulate the name or logo for Dharma Initiative until the break between season one and two.
10. Finally, despite many conspiracy rumors, the co-creators promise the castaways weren’t dead for the entire duration of the series.