One day on Netflix: The ending of the series could have been different, they even filmed two versions!

Warning, spoilers. It is recommended to watch the series for one day before continuing reading this article.

With 35 million hours watched in its first week, Un jour quickly gained ground Netflix’s best views in 75 countries. This adaptation of David Nicholls’ worldwide bestseller won over subscribers, crying after watching 14 episodes of the British series, a huge success.

See you on July 15

To recall, One Day tells the story of the friendship and love of Emma Morley (Ambika Modi) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) for more than twenty years, since their first meeting on July 15, 1988, on the evening of their graduation.

Each episode of the series created by Nicole Taylor allows us to find Dexter and Emma on the same date year after year and see how they grow, change, grow closer, grow apart and go through moments of joy and sorrow.

If many subscribers were shocked by the tragic ending of One Day, those who read David Nichols’ book or saw Lon Scherfig’s film adaptation with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturges knew very well how the story between Emma and Dexter would end. .

The end of the day could have been different

Still, Nicole Taylor was hesitant to change the outcome, which is nothing more than the death of Emma, ​​mowed down by the driver, leaving behind a disconsolate Dexter who will have a hard time recovering from her disappearance. The creator of the series explained transfer That this end was inevitable:

“I didn’t want to do that to Emma because I love her and society doesn’t want her. Everyone who reads the book remembers how they felt when it happened. You just want to throw the book out the window. There was a lot of thinking, wondering if it was The ending we wanted.

I was thinking about other endings, but mostly this ending is integrated into the work as a whole. The story has its thematic integrity, it has its structural integrity. I felt that changing the ending would be gratuitous and would detract from the overall impact of the story. “

Two endings were filmed

Nicole Taylor wanted to stay true to the work of David Nichols, which shocked her in her youth. But that didn’t stop him from making the story his own, adding even more depth and putting his own touch on it. Originally planned for 20 episodes (one per year), but shortened to 14 chapters, one day ends with Dexter’s painful reconstruction.

And two versions were filmed until the end, when in 2007 Dexter walks the hill of Arthur’s Seat with his daughter Jasmine, as he once did with Emma when they met in 1988. Dexter remembers this scene and the moment Emma asks him out. Be just friends rather than a one night stand “Don’t be a footnote in the story of his life”.

In the version we see in the series, Dexter looks up at the hill and then without a word descends to join his daughter. But Leo Woodall explained that he also filmed a version in which he said: “You were my whole story”. But that ending didn’t stick, and the series ends with a montage of Emma and Dexter kissing.

The series One Day is available on Netflix.