‘The Shawshank Redemption’ Cast Reunite For 20th Anniversary, Reveal Original Ending

The cast of The Shawshank Redemption reunited to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary earlier this week, and they shared various revelations about the creation of the film.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the event was held at Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night. Host Max Brooks quizzed the film’s stars Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins and its writer and director, Frank Darabont, about its legacy and impact.

But the most riveting revelation to have emanated from their discussion was that The Shawshank Redemption originally had a different ending. Originally, the film didn’t reveal whether Morgan Freeman’s Red actually met up with Tim Robbins’ Andy in Zihuatenjo, Mexico. However, Darabont was convinced by the studio to make the alteration because they surmised that, after two hours, the audience deserved to see the pair together again.

“The original script ended with Red on the bus, uncertain but hopeful about the future; that’s the way the [King] story ended. But [studio executives told me], ‘After two-plus hours of hell you might owe them that reunion’.”

Darabont also confirmed that the film previously featured a long segment that showed Red re-entering society after leaving prison. This would have been before he went in search of Andy Dufresne’s box under the tree in the field.

The director, who has since gone on to work on The Mist and The Walking Dead’s first season, explained that the five-minute sequence also showed Red having a nervous breakdown while working at a grocery store. But during test screenings for these scenes, Darabont noticed that audiences weren’t responding to Red’s tribulations outside of prison, so he decided to cut straight to his reunion with Andy.

“We had the sense that the audience was getting impatient. They already believed he wasn’t going to make it, because he’d said it.”

Meanwhile, Frank Darabont also admitted that he actually wanted to direct a different film before he went on to make his feature-length directorial debut with The Shawshank Redemption. Darabont actually wanted to oversee another Stephen King novel, The Mist, which he eventually made in 2007.

However, after careful consideration, he decided to make The Shawkshank Redemption instead. He believed that if he made a horror film first, he would get “typecast” as a director, and he’d end up only making films as part of that genre.

The Shawshank Redemption is widely regarded as one of the best films of the last 25 years, and it regularly tops greatest movies ever made lists.