The showrunner of the Netflix series One Day, based on the novel by David Nicholls and the 2011 film adaptation, has explained why the decision was made to keep the show’s heartbreaking ending.
The show follows Emma and Dexter, played by Ambika Mod and Leo Woodhall, respectively, as they prepare for their graduation in July 1988. The pair meet that night and then go their own ways.
However, their bond is one that lasts through time, leading to the tragic ending of Emma’s bike accident death. Showrunner Nicole Taylor spoke of the ending in a new interview with The Wrap.
“I didn’t want to do that to her because I love her, and the audience does not want [that],” Taylor said (via ScreenRant). “Everyone who read the book remembers how they felt when that happened. You just want to throw the book out the window.”
She continued, “There was a lot of thought. I went into this, wanting to reflect on and sort of interrogate whether that was still the ending that we wanted. I thought that was a reasonable thing to do. I was thinking about other endings, but fundamentally, that ending is stitched into the work as a whole.”
“The story kind of has its own thematic integrity, it has its own structural integrity,” Taylor went on. “I feel like the overall meaning of the piece requires that, and I felt like any changing of the ending would be gratuitous and undermine the overall impact of the piece so I think it was the right thing to have a good think about it, question it and not just take it as given.”
Check out the trailer for One Day below.
