The director of ‘Soul’ says that initially the movie had a completely different ending

• Warning: Spoilers below if you haven’t seen “Soul,” now airing on Disney Plus.
• “Soul” director Pete Docter, codirector Kemp Powers, and producer Dana Murray told Entertainment Tonight there was an original ending of the movie.
• Middle school band teacher Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), whose life was cut short after falling into a sink hole, was initially supposed to stay in “the great before.”
• The ending was changed when it was thought that Joe, now seeing how to really live his life after the events of the movie, should be given a second chance.
• Docter said “there were definitely camps” on the creative team. Some felt Joe should get a second chance and others felt he should move on.
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

If you have watched Pixar’s new movie “Soul” on Disney Plus, you probably got a little choked up at the end when Joe Gardner’s (Jamie Foxx) journey to “the great before” ends with him being given a second chance at life back on Earth.

In the film, the middle school band teacher dies after falling accidentally into a sink hole. It didn’t help that it happened just as he received the opportunity of a lifetime – to finally play with a real jazz band. 

But “Soul” director Pete Docter, codirector Kemp Powers, and producer Dana Murray told Entertainment Tonight that the second chance Joe receives wasn’t always the planned ending.

“There was a lot of debating back and forth,” Murray said, “but I think the more we saw him live his life and just thinking about his mother, Libba, and all these different factors, it felt like the right ending, that he needed to be able to go enjoy his life in the way he wanted to because he’d learned so much throughout the film.”

Powers added, “That ending sparked more debate than I think any other element of the film.”

In fact, as different scenarios were developed - some in which Joe stayed dead, others in which he does get a second chance at life and another ending in which we see Joe's life a year later - Docter said people on the movie began to build allegiance to the ending in which they believed.

"There were definitely camps," Docter admitted. "Because I think people felt like it's cheating to let him go back. On the other hand, story-wise, you can't teach this guy to enjoy life the right way and then rob him of that."

The ending in the final version of "Soul" finds Joe heading up the stairs to "the great before" after helping 22 (Tina Fey) find the spark to begin her life on Earth. But on his incline one of the Jerrys, or the keepers of the universe and all its secrets, stops him and reveals that they have decided to allow him another chance at his life, which he happily accepts.

Docter added that in the original script, he felt the correct ending was to have Joe move on, calling it "the most selfless act." While making the movie, however, he had a change of heart.

"Ultimately, in the movie, every scene was Joe going, 'Wait a second, I didn't live this the right way before,'" Docter said. "So, it didn't seem right then at the end to go, 'All right, off you go!'"

It led to the final shot of the movie of Joe, back in his body, taking a deep breath as he sets off on his "new" life. 

Previously, Docter told Insider that initially "Soul" spent the majority of the time in "the great before" and didn't always star a Black lead.

"I don't know that we specified too much, but the roles were flipped. 22 was the lead, this character, who doesn't want to go be born," he continued.

Once Joe became the protagonist, the directors decided to add more elements to his life and presumably change the ending.

Kemp, who initially joined the film as a writer, added that Joe's character needed a lot of fleshing out especially once they decided that he'd be a Black man.

"For me, it's definitely about the context in which you tell this character's story. There were a lot of caution cones we had to put up ... [to,] for the first time, [tell] a Black man's story in an animated film, being aware of how easy it is to go off the rails," Powers, who identifies as Black, added.

"The point of the film is that everyone has a soul," he continued. "All of our souls are presented in the same way and the same color."

"Soul" is now available on Disney Plus.