What if Michael J. Fox was never part of Back to the Future? Leaps into the past, dismissals, and a snapshot frozen in time

The most narratively thrilling part of Back to the Future is the idea of being erased from existence because of the choices made in the “past.” A past that has already happened for protagonist Marty McFly, but one that is still very much present for his parents during their high school years — those 1950s to which Professor Brown’s DeLorean catapults him, and from which the young man must find a way to get back (or forward, to be precise).

It’s a concept that its lead actor Michael J. Fox would also experience in real life during the making of Robert Zemeckis’ cult classic, co-written with story co-creator Bob Gale. From 1982 to 1989, the sitcom Family Ties aired, becoming one of the most successful shows of the decade. It was a hit that made Fox a household name, but it was also the reason he initially had to turn down the film that would later make him a cinematic icon.

By contract, Fox could not leave the set of Family Ties, forcing the production to cast fellow actor Eric Stoltz instead. Born in Whittier, California in 1961, Stoltz reportedly shot for about five weeks wearing the clothes (and especially the iconic red vest) of Marty McFly. However, he was fired midway through filming. The reason was his overly intense interpretation of the character, lacking the irony that Zemeckis was looking for and had recognized in Michael J. Fox from the start. There was no major drama, though it surely wasn’t easy to halt a production already well underway with plenty of footage already shot.

Some of that footage was still used in the final cut — particularly in wide shots or fast-paced scenes where Marty’s face isn’t visible, such as the Libyan chase sequence or when Biff gets punched in the café before Marty escapes on the skateboard. It brings to mind the photo of the McFly family fading in and out as time unravels before everything returns to order. It was as if, with Eric Stoltz as the lead, Fox himself was gradually fading from the project he had originally been considered for — until everything fell back into place, making that cinematic snapshot unforgettable.

Fox promised the network that he would prioritize Family Ties, which allowed him to get the green light to shoot Back to the Future as well, resulting in an exhausting schedule of about eighteen to nineteen hours a day for nearly three months. In the mornings, he filmed the sitcom, while nights and weekends were dedicated to the sci-fi movie. The lack of sleep paid off, earning him a place in cinema history and two Golden Globe nominations in 1986 — one for Back to the Future and one for Family Ties.

For Eric Stoltz, being fired from Zemeckis’ film was not the end of the road. In 1985, the year Back to the Future was released, he appeared in Sean S. Cunningham’s The New Kids, Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask (which premiered at Cannes, earning Cher the Best Actress award), and Jonathan Sanger’s Code Name: Emerald. For years, rumors suggested that Stoltz and Fox were on bad terms. Breaking his silence forty years after the film’s release, Fox clarified the story in an interview with People promoting his new book Future Boy, in which he revisits his experience working on the Back to the Future trilogy.

While writing the book, Michael J. Fox reached out to key figures from both the film and his life at the time, including some Family Ties colleagues. He even sent an email to Eric Stoltz, who initially declined to participate. But that wasn’t the end of it — Stoltz eventually agreed to meet with Fox, and the two reportedly had “a great conversation.” “There’s been all this mythology around what happened,” Fox explained. “Was it a betrayal? Were there bad or mean people? No, it just happened. We had different experiences with the same situation — you absorb it and move on.” The two even recalled meeting long before Back to the Future, when they both auditioned for Franc Roddam’s The Lords of Discipline, reading a scene together, though neither got the part.

After so many years and endless speculation, Fox and Stoltz now appear to be on excellent terms. Also in 2025, during a Back to the Future panel at the Calgary Expo convention, Michael J. Fox described his colleague as a wonderful actor and a fantastic person: “He’s become a friend and someone I really enjoyed talking to about this story and how we ended up in different places. I learned a lot from him about acceptance and perseverance.” A Hollywood-worthy ending — though one can’t help but wonder what would happen if Stoltz, like Marty McFly, really could go back in time.