The Regime creator talks possible alternate endings to Kate Winslet drama
The Regime spoilers follow.
The Regime creator Will Tracy has revealed that there were alternate endings to the Max show.
The six-part limited series follows Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet), a chancellor of a Central European country whose mental state worsens under the pressure of running a country.
Enlisting the help of trusted advisor Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), the pair strike up a bond as they seek to expand their grasp, but the walls cave in around them as both the population and inner circle become furious with their iron grip.
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The finale of the show, which aired on Sunday (April 7), saw Elena and Herbert captured by rebels after they escaped the palace. Elena eventually sacrificed her ally to preserve her life, with ministers now largely calling the shots as she’s reduced to a puppet.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tracy spoke about the implications of the ending and its cyclical nature, whilst also sharing that he originally had other plans for both Elena and her colleague.
“My initial early version of it was a bit like the end of [Romanian dictator] Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime – where she's on the run and they nab her and it's a very quick, hastily convened tribunal, and then she's hanged in the town square or whatever.
“Just by default, I thought she [Elena] would get her just desserts, but with a sense that what might be replacing her might not necessarily be vastly better. But that was really only because I hadn't put much thought into it until later into breaking this season.
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“I landed on this idea of, what if it's pressing the reset button on the Nintendo? And it all loops back to the beginning, but with those who survive carrying these emotional scars from what transpired.
“Yet the political story, as it often happens in our world, runs cyclically back to where it started. That seemed like, even though she lives and survives, in some ways more tragic than an ‘everyone dies and is brought to justice’ ending.”
The Regime streams on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Max in the US.
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