The director of All the Light We Cannot See has revealed why he made some changes to the ending from the book.
Needless to say, spoiler alert for All the Light We Cannot See, so if you haven't seen it and don't want to know the end, go no further.
The four-episode-long show was released on Netflix last week. It stars Dark breakout Louis Hofmann, alongside Aria Mia Loberti, Marvel's Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie.
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Set in World War Two, it alternates between the perspectives of German soldier Werner, played by Hoffman, and blind French girl Marie-Laure played by Loberti.
The story follows the pair after they miraculously meet across radio broadcasts.
Right, big spoilers now incoming.
In the show, the physical paths of the two main characters finally cross when a German commander called Reinhold von Rumpel finds Marie-Laure hiding and attempts to kill her.
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Werner jumps in to fight off the commander, and Marie Laure shoots the commander dead.
Werner then surrenders to American soldiers and promises to find her after the war is over.
In the book, however, he is taken prisoner and in a delirious state he steps on a German landmine and is killed.
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Executive producer, Dan Levine, explained the big change from the book.
He told Tudum: “We talked about a lot of things to do with the ending changing, and we decided by just not showing the very end – where it jumps forward in time and there’s some sadness and tragedy – we didn’t have to show that.
“We loved the book and this is no judgment on the book, but we wanted to end in a more hopeful place."
He added that: “Nothing in the TV adaptation to suggest that the things in [Doerr’s] postscript don’t happen."
“They could still happen, but we’re choosing not to look in that direction. I remember reading the book, and it killed me. It really hurt me.”
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He continued: “I always felt that this book, and hopefully this show, is this construct of inexorable intersection of destiny, that they’re slowly coming together.
“And I love this idea that they’re only together for less than an hour, but it’s the love of a lifetime, in some ways, in a single moment.”
The changes have left audiences divided, with some enjoying the slightly more hopeful ending, while others were left bemused but the change.
All the Light We Cannot See is now available to stream on Netflix.
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, News, World News