Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-36761202-20180909203545/@comment-29325824-20200225185800

No, pretty sure Kubo said that he only fully planned out the story by the time he figured out how to continue from Aizen's "death". There's a HUGE difference.

"Bleach was originally supposed to end right after the SS arc."

I'm even more sure that that's just an Urban Legend. Just like how Toriyama apparently wanted to end DBZ after the Namek arc.