While Josh Boone (‘The Fault in Our Stars’) has taken over re-writing the script for ‘The Stand‘, the previous one by David Kajganich (‘Blood Creek’, ‘The Invasion’) will leave fans unhappy. To say that Kajganich deviated from King’s work is a little too light. To say that he murdered it and desecrated its remains is almost doing it justice. M-O-O-N, that spells steaming pile of, what this new ending sounds like. While I enjoyed his take on ‘Blood Creek’, I’m now worried on how he will handle ‘It’ when it comes together as Kajganich is still attached to that King remake as well. Still, Boone could be taking all of what David did out of the script and making it a little closer to the novel’s ending.

So what did Kajganich leave Boone to work with? According to Badass Digest, here’s the ending of Kajganich’s script:

WARNING! Since we don’t know if Boone will keep this ending, it is considered SPOILERS! 

In this version, from last year, the good guy survivors from Boulder get together in an army and march on Las Vegas to kill Randall Flagg. Flagg’s headquarters is, of course, the Luxor Pyramid. The Boulderites invade the city while, off to the east, a squad fights at the Boulder Dam – which Trashcan Man explodes, killing Larry Underwood and sending a deadly flood to Vegas. In the city Flagg squares off against hero Stu Redman… who now has the power of God, and they have an Akira-like battle on the Las Vegas Strip, with Flagg trying to take Stu’s magic.

Cars are thrown, Excalbur’s turrets are tossed, the people of Vegas are used by Flagg as disposable cannon-fodder. Meanwhile Nick Andros sacrifices his life taking out a howitzer. The Boulder forces, while armed, try to only take prisoners and rescue people from being under Flagg’s evil spell. It all comes down to Flagg and Stu, and whether or not Stu will absorb Flagg’s evil magic.

And there’s a mid-credits tag that sets up a sequel. Yes, a The Stand 2.

I’m confused by all of this. ‘The Stand’ had enough content in it to make three movies by itself and still cut material. To somehow fit it all into one, change the ending to the above, and lead into a sequel of something completely new? If this is true, you really have to wonder what Kajganich was thinking. At the very least this seems to go against Boone’s original view on a stand alone movie:

“We’re gonna do one, three-hour, R-rated version with an amazing A-list cast across the board. Every single one of those characters will be somebody you recognize and somebody you relate to. And it’s gonna be awesome.”

With that quote in mind I highly suspect the above ending is going to be scrapped but only time will tell.

Would you go see this version of ‘The Stand’? Do you think Boone is going to give us something a little closer to the source material? Share your thoughts below!