Channel 4 and Netflix’s smash hit dark comedy series, The End Of The F***ing World, nearly ended its first season in a different way. Alex Lawther, who stars in the show as James, has revealed as much in a new interview.
As it played out in the final edit, The End Of The F***ing World season 1 ends with James fleeing the police by running along a beach. A gunshot is heard, but we don’t get to see where it lands. Roll credits, queue lots of appetite for a second season. But it wasn’t always going to be the way.
Here’s what Lawther said about the original version of the ending:
“Originally, we shot a very different version to what was cut together for the series. The other version left it more unlikely that James was alive. There was some ambiguity but in the version that was used it’s very ambiguous. I really like that because it means we can do a second season.”
He also said this:
“[What] we are left with is very open-ended. It’s just that gunshot and then fade to black. A part of me thinks it’s almost too perfect, too Romeo and Juliet, if he died. I don’t think James and Allysa [Jessica Barden] would stand for that. They’d think they were more complicated than that. They’re not hopeless romantics and life isn’t like that. Life is not a Shakespearean tragedy, there’s more mundanity. Given the tone of the series, it might be interesting if they actually had to deal with the consequences of their actions.”
As it stands, The End Of The F***ing World season 2 has not been officially announced. Fingers crossed that it is, and we can finally see how that cliffhanger is meant to play out.
In the meantime, you can catch Lawther in a great new British horror movie, Ghost Stories, which is currently gracing UK cinemas.