‘Danny Phantom' Series Developer Steve Marmel ‘Always Imagined' Danny Died In Ghost Portal Accident That Gave Him His Powers

Forbes

26-03-2025

Danny Phantom
Young Danny Fenton had a lot more than his molecules rearranged in the Ghost Portal accident that gave him spectral superpowers, according to Danny Phantom series developer Steve Marmel.
'There's a version of Danny's backstory that some people have alluded to on the internet, and it was always how I wrote it in my head,' says Marmel who, in addition to fleshing out the original concept with creator Butch Hartman (The FairlyOdd Parents), either wrote scripts or came up with stories for over half the episodes produced.'
'My personal Danny origin story is kind of dark and couldn't really be part of a kids' show, per se, but it's how I looked at Danny; how I looked at him getting his powers and how I looked at why he was still such an irresponsible kid with those powers.'
So what's the spooky secret Marmel's been holding on to for the last 20 years? Well, here it is, exclusively revealed to Forbes Entertainment: Marmel wrote Danny (voiced by David Kaufman) as though he actually perished in that 'great big flash' depicted in the opening theme song.
'I always imagined Danny saw the 'bright light,' Marmel explains. 'I liked playing it as The Sixth Sense as a superhero show. And so, I always wanted Danny to be like, 'I'm going to live my best kid life,' because he got a glimpse of what comes next and didn't know how long he'd be here. 'I'm going to do all this fun stuff and I am going to protect my family, friends, and planet from all this dark stuff that I know is on the other side of this dimension.''
Danny Phantom
While the show was certainly aimed at older viewers who could handle more adult themes, the premise of an undead protagonist felt like it would be a little ghastly for a Nickelodeon original. As such, Danny stayed a regular, earthbound teenage boy who just so happened to have ghost-related abilities. The 'Danny croaked' backstory was simply a way for Marmel to flesh out the main character.
'If it was an older show, it absolutely would have been Danny hanging on to his mortal coil for both selfish reasons and the people he loved,' Marmel continues. 'But [when you're making a] kids' show you don't want to go, 'Hey kids! Good morning! Here's mortality!' Butch has his own backstory — it's in the song! — and that's canon. But in my head, it allowed me to write Danny with a little more depth than just, 'I'm inexperienced and sometimes dumb!' No, you're grabbing life by the horns because you've already experienced what it's like to not be a part of it.'
At the same time, Marmel and Hartman often treated the Ghost Zone and its inhabitants not as an afterlife full of departed souls, but as 'another dimension with ghostly powers,' notes the former. 'I don't think we really went too far into supernatural. We were just like, 'If it's a ghost and it's got a power, what is that ghost like?' I don't think we really thought of it as a supernatural show. We just looked at it as a supernatural genre to play with.'
Despite the fact that he never saw Danny's rogues' gallery as 'true ghosts, per se,' Marmel does concede that a number of them — like fan favorite Ember McLain (voiced by Tara Strong) — do have earthly backstories. 'If you listen to Ember's song, you can tell she was alive. She's not with us anymore and she's pissed,' he reveals, agreeing with my characterization of the Ghost Zone as 'a dimension of unfinished business' rather than a simulacrum of some existence after death. 'You just don't want to shove mortality in a child's face." Marmel concludes. 'There's enough of that in the real world.'
All three seasons of Danny Phantom are now streaming on Paramount+