I had forgotten all about Thomas McDonald...
definitely one of the odder things to come out of the Depp film. it was so weird how he ended up being cut and this third, even younger Barnabas, sort of came out of the woodwork right before the film's release. incidentally if there was supposed to be a "teenage Barnabas" at some point I wonder if there was supposed to have been a "teenage Angelique" or a "teenage Josette" for him to play off of? we certainly never heard about that piece of casting?