Yahoo Movies Scott Pilgrim Vs The World almost had a very different ending
The Edgar Wright classic could have had a major twist
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World has been given a new lease of life in the Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, but the 2010 film almost had a very different ending to the one fans know and love.
The movie, which was directed by Edgar Wright, follows its titular character (Michael Cera) and his quest to win the heart of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but the only way he can is if he defeats her League of Evil Exes.
Read more: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: The legacy of Edgar Wright's cult movie
Based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic Scott Pilgrim, the film began production before the comic was finished which meant that Wright chose his own ending — something that caused issue at first.
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World almost had a very different ending
In Wright's original version of the film, Scott ends up with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), the 17-year-old high school student he is dating before he meets Ramona, and who he effectively ghosted in order to pursue his romantic interest in Ramona.
The ending that Wright wrote, which he thought of before O'Malley's comics were finished, was that Scott would return to Knives after being rejected by Ramona — something that was a contributing factor to Ramona's implied coldness towards him throughout the movie.
Read more: Edgar Wright recalls Robert Pattinson’s ‘intense’ audition for 'Scott Pilgrim Vs The World'
The ending — which is available on the home video release of Scott Pilgrim vs The World — was one that O'Malley didn't agree with and received some criticism from the test audiences who saw movie with its original ending.
O'Malley has previously said he felt the movie's original ending made Knives "a weaker character". He though it didn't make sense for her to get back with Scott after he'd cheated on her. After sharing his plans to end the comics with Scott dating Ramona instead, he, Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall made the change to the movie.
The comic creator is the one who wrote Knives' line "I’m too cool for you anyway" in order to show that she had moved on from Scott, and hadn't simply given up on him.
Wright has previously spoken about the film's changed ending, saying in a 10th anniversary retrospective interview with CinemaBlend that he preferred "the new version" but that they'd come up with the original for a reason.
He told the publication: "The thing is the ending that we’d originally done where [Scott] ended up with Knives, we had originally written that to be a little like the endings of The Graduate or The Heartbreak Kid, which have these slightly kind of bittersweet, enigmatic endings.
"In both films, the hero gets what he wants, but is it what he really needs? And so you’re left with a question mark that’s like, ‘Huh. Maybe I did the wrong thing?’"
Scott Pilgrim almost became a serial killer
Although the ending in which Scott ends up with Knives was filmed, one idea that Wright came up with — and eventually disregarded — was the reveal that Scott had actually killed all of Ramona's exes in a fit of jealousy, and had simply created the virtual reality game world in which we see the story as a coping mechanism.
In an interview with The Playlist, per IndieWire, Wright said they almost filmed the alternate ending but didn't because of time constraints.
The filmmaker explained: "Yeah, we nearly shot that on video during the reshoots. But dammit, we only had 6 hours of night and no time to do it — [it] would have been funny."
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World are available to watch on Netflix.
Watch the trailer for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off:
