In spite of Snyder's comments to reporters in August that his Watchmen movie would have very few changes from the graphic novel, reports from a test screening last month suggested that the film’s ending had a sans-seafood finish.
The altered ending replaced the giant squid alien attack with a simple nuclear holocaust. Fans have reacted with outrage, and many were skeptical the spoilers were for real. Rumors have been circulating saying that Warner Bros was testing alternate endings to test fan tolerance of an update for more "mainstream" audiences.
Finally, in an interview with Dark Horizons, Snyder confirmed that he had changed the ending of Watchmen, and shot down reports that he had filmed more than one.
“The fans, god love ‘em, they’re all up in arms about the squid,” said Snyder. “What they should be up in arms about are things like shooting the pregnant woman, ‘God is real and he’s American’, whether THAT’S in the movie. That’s my point of view, maybe I’m crazy.”
“The squid was not in the movie when I got the script, the squid was never in any draft that I saw,” continued Snyder. “My point is only that there was this elegant solution to the squid problem that I kind of embraced. I’m a fan of the thing as much as anyone, I was saying what are we going to do about this before I even read the script.”
In his defense Snyder adds, “The one thing that was cool was that anyone who had read the graphic novel who was at the screening rated the film ‘excellent’, for me I’m like ‘I’m done’.”
Still unanswered are questions that the giant squid ending aptly addressed. Fans want to know how a simple nuclear detonation, linked to the American Dr. Manhattan, would definitively end the cold war or cement a sense of world unity against a common foe--as did the faked alien attack.
Snyder confirmed that he only shot one ending to the film, ending rumors that the ending that was screening in Portland was one of a couple choices. Also, the second trailer that will be attached to Quantum of Solace features “a little bit more story” that will give you “a sense of the characters plight - ‘we were supposed to make the world a better place... what happened to the American Dream’”. He also confirmed a third trailer will be released early next year.
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