Rumors of unused Pokémon have flooded the internet since the early days of the franchise, but most end up never being proven. This time, though, while we don’t have concrete proof of their existence, a recent data mine has speculated on a cut Mega Evolution and secondary form for Celesteela.
Dating back to the release of Pokémon HOME in February 2020, data miners were able to discover new things through the files included in the app. This included unused visual and audio assets that were never fully implemented. One such file was audio that sounded like a slightly altered version of Jynx’s cry—leading to speculation that the distortion was supposed to be used for a potentially scrapped Mega Jynx.
A new data mine attempt for HOME in early February led to more information being compiled, showing two oddities in the app’s files where information for different Pokémon is organized. This had listings for alternate forms set right under Jynx’s main entry, along with another under Celesteela’s. The secondary entry for Jynx is named just like that of Pinsir’s Mega Evolution file, seemingly confirming that a Mega Jynx was, at some point, at least considered and partially implemented with things like audio files.
As for Celesteela, rumors of a secondary form are relatively new thanks to that February data mine. Based on the other Ultra Beast files, Celesteela’s is the only one with a f01 secondary listing, which could point to a second form of the Launch Pokémon. It’s unclear why Celesteela would be the Ultra Beast given a second form unless the bamboo shoot-based baby variant from the anime was planned to be in the game, but that’s what the HOME data and a placeholder Bulbasaur cry in that file seemingly hint at.
Adding to that possibility is a matching file set found in Pokémon Rumble Rush on April 12, which used some different internal listings but still had a separate f01 file for Celesteela and used the same Bulbasaur cry. If that baby version of Celesteela was planned for the game, potentially to serve as the Poipole to its Naganadel, other baby Ultra Beasts may have also been cut.
While we’ll likely never see full confirmation on a second Celesteela form or Mega Jynx, unless the latter appears in Pokémon Legends: ZA, you can still dig through these data mines to see all of the early visuals and unused content pulled from HOME.