You can see how various scenes originally written for completely different purposes eventually did make it into the movie as actually released: the horseback shooting scene where Vincent kills Zasa was originally written as Tom Hagen being wounded, not killed, in a hit attempt.

Obviously Zasa was written in almost wholesale to replace the part originally intended for Cicci. (The names, of course, being phonetically almost identical.)

A lot of Hagen's convalesence scenes after the shooting were transposed onto Michael.

In this early version of the script, they make no bones about the fact that by this time, Connie is acting as a fully functional member of the family.

At least passing mention is given to Sonny's legitimate children -- Santino Jr. has become a dentist, and calls himself "Sandy."

No mention whatsoever of Connie's sons, Victor and Michael, who by this time would have been in their 30s, and probably involved in the family themselves (Michael commented on their getting involved in crime when they were kids in 1957). Maybe they're dead?

The time line is a little fuzzy -- the movie is framed around Tom Hagen's 70th birthday party, which would make it 1986. Some other time references seemed a little off; I suspect that neither Puzo nor FFC were probably as obsessive about exact dates as many hardcore fans were and are.

In this version at least, Hagen remains fully loyal and dependable even to the end -- I still can't believe at some time, the operative story line of GF III wasn't intended to focus on Michael finally being betrayed by Tom, since several scenes at the end of GF II clearly indicate a growing rift of loyalty between the two.

The out-of-nowhere appearance of Don Altobello, and his behind-the-scenes maneuvering to betray Michael, still seem to strongly indicate the part could have been originally have been written to depict the loyal and trusted Hagen, who by this time would have developed plenty of contacts himself in the underworld, eventually realizing he would never take over the family no matter what happened to Michael.

If Michael had retired, been incapacitated or died, the power struggle between Vito's adopted son, Tom Hagen, and his bastard grandson, Vincent, for ultimate control of the family would have been a great storyline -- perhaps with Connie, by now the shadowy Black Madonna of the entire family, making the ultimate decisions.