'Killing Eve' author speaks out on disastrous TV series ending

Killing Eve author Luke Jennings has spoken out on the much-maligned TV series ending, admitting he didn't like it either and promising that Villanelle "will be back".

Jennings' Villanelle novels were first adapted by Phoebe Waller-Bridge for the BBC series, with the screenwriting reigns being handed over each series to Emerald Fennell, Suzanne Heathcote, and finally Laura Neal.

Read more: Killing Eve ran out of steam in series four

But fans of the series, which featured the romance between assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), the MI6 agent tasked with tracking her, were vocal in their disappointment over Neal's series ending which aired recently.

She killed off Villanelle in her final moments, just as it seemed that she and Eve would be able to walk off into the sunset together, with both fans and Jennings complaining that it followed a trope of same-sex couples not being allowed to enjoy a happy romantic ending.

Talking to The Guardian, Jennings said: "The season four ending was a bowing to convention. A punishing of Villanelle and Eve for the bloody, erotically impelled chaos they have caused.

Read more: Could there ever be a Killing Eve movie?

"A truly subversive storyline would have defied the trope which sees same-sex lovers in TV dramas permitted only the most fleeting of relationships before one of them is killed off (Lexa’s death in The 100, immediately after sleeping with her female love interest for the first time, is another example).

"How much more darkly satisfying, and true to Killing Eve’s original spirit, for the couple to walk off into the sunset together?"

Jennings did not kill off the character in his novels and promised fans "on the page, if not on the screen, she will be back", offering hope of a continuation of the love story.

He acknowledged that in having his work adapted for TV "never going to love everything the screenwriting team does", but said that the ending had "taken me aback".

There were other parts of Killing Eve that the author was pleased with, though - he lavished praise on Comer and Oh's performances, the soundtrack and the costume department.

Watch: Killing Eve fans mark show ending amid fury at treatment of queer characters