Ryan Murphy reveals the original ending of The Ed Gein Story, and the reason he changed it

The ending of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the third instalment in the Netflix franchise, saw Ryan Murphy pay tribute to the killers and lunatics that Ed’s crimes inspired.

As shown through the numerous intervals throughout the show, Monster: The Ed Gein Story was not just about the crimes of Ed Gein, but the inspiration it served as for countless other killers, both in pop culture and the real world. From Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to real-world killer Richard Speck, Ed Gein’s story travels further than the few years he was actively engaging in those horrific crimes.

That idea was rounded off nicely in the final episode, entitled The Godfather, when Ed sees a vision of the killers he inspired.

“It’s the most tonally challenging part of the show to me in that he’s not horrified by it,” co-creator Ian Brennan told Tudum. “He sort of loves the fact that he made a mark.”

But originally, the ending was much different and called Momma’s Boy.

Here’s the original ending of Monster: The Ed Gein Story

In the same interview with Tudum, Ryan Murphy explained that the original ending of Monster: The Ed Gein Story was centred around the mother-son dynamic that was huge throughout the other episodes.

“The finale of this show was [originally] called ‘Momma’s Boy.’ That was going to be the brilliant Laurie Metcalf visiting [Ed] in the asylum,” he said.

Credit: Netflix

The creators ultimately decided to change it upon realising that, in his final moments, he would have wanted to see his legacy and not his abusive mother.

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“We quickly abandoned that and came up with the kind of All That Jazz tribute. And also we wanted to talk about, yeah, it was a dark legacy. There were many, many dark creatures in our world — Richard Speck, Ted Bundy — who were influenced and obsessed with Ed for all the wrong reasons,” Ryan Murphy added.

Though (personally) I feel it would have been more grounded to keep the story about Ed Gein and his mother, Augusta did still feature in the finale as she confessed “only a mother could love you” in one final gut punch.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix