Pokemon Leak Points to Cut Pokemon Form

gamerant.com:

A recent Pokemon datamining leak has revealed that at some point in development, Celesteela was going to have an additional form. This information has left some Pokemon fans wondering what could have been in the works for Celesteela, and if it will eventually show up in the series at a later time.

Celesteela has been a part of the Pokemon franchise for nearly a decade, but hasn't appeared in recent core series releases. The Ultra Beast was unobtainable in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, including in its DLC. At this point, it's unclear if Celesteela will ever return to the main series as a Pokemon that can be caught or transferred, but it seems that there was more in the works for Celesteela at some point during its development.

As discovered by Twitter user ElChicoEevee, datamined files indicate Ultra Beast Celesteela used to have a secondary form. In older versions of Pokemon Home, Celesteela has two audio cry recordings: their standard cry, and one that's labeled as «f01», meaning «form one.» Other Pokemon with multiple forms have recordings with «f01,» «f02,» and so on, defining exactly what this indicates. However, rather than a unique cry, the recording kept under «f01» is an unmodified clip of a Bulbasaur's default cry.

While this could have been considered a random oddity, it seems that the data is persistent across multiple Pokemon entries. ElChicoEevee later discovered that the same pair of cries are present in Pokemon Rumble Rush, and it once again uses the Bulbasaur cry for its «f01» form. Unfortunately, what the Pokemon might have looked like or any other significant details about this secondary form are unknown.

It's a bit odd that the second form of Celesteela has a recording of Bulbasaur's cry for this scrapped form. However, it's most likely just there as a placeholder. As the original first Pokemon in the Pokedex, it makes some sense to choose Bulbasaur in particular to use for this purpose. The fact that this data made it into two Pokemon releases