[Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for Free Guy.]
At the conclusion of Free Guy, it looks like Millie (Jodie Comer) may end up with Guy (Ryan Reynolds), which would have been a weird ending since it would have required her to stay in a digital world, thus undermining the message of the importance of living your life. Thankfully, the film quickly adjusts course and wisely describes Guy as “a love letter” from its original author, Keys (Joe Keery). Millie realizes that Keys has always loved her, and the two of them get together in the real world while Guy gets to hang out with his best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) in their new digital world.
Collider's Christina Radish spoke with screenwriter Matt Lieberman about the script, and he admitted that his original script did have Millie ending up with Guy into whatever the sequel might be, but that Reynolds and director Shawn Levy argued that they needed Millie and Guy to part ways while still giving both of them a happy ending.
“In the original script, he ends up with Millie,” says Lieberman. “They maintain their relationship into whatever the sequel will be. But Ryan and Shawn felt that it needed that Ghost moment. Nobody could really rationalize a person having an extended stay as bit and bytes. We thought, ‘What’s the Ghost moment?’ It was definitely tweaked from the first iteration of the movie. How does Guy end up, after saying goodbye to Millie? How do you wanna leave Guy? We knew that audiences would just wanna know that he’s gonna be okay and that he’s happy, and I think they nailed it.
As for sequels (and Reynolds said this past weekend that Disney wants a second film), Lieberman says he has some ideas for where the next film could go.
“I’ve not been a part of any formal sequel discussion, but we talked a little bit about it on set, two years ago, and I have big ideas for it. I definitely see lots of fun, unexpected places the story can go and pairings of characters and things that could really be a lot of fun. I hope I get the chance to take a crack at it.”
Free Guy is now playing in theaters.
