‘The Departed’: Martin Scorsese Says The Studio Wanted To Keep The Main Characters Alive & Create A Franchise

When you are a legendary filmmaker with a career that spans six decades, there are inevitably people who are going to argue about which films are best. In the discussion surrounding Martin Scorsese’s career, narrowing it down is difficult enough, with many people having an issue trying to pinpoint which of his crime thrillers are best, let alone which is his overall best film. That said, his only Oscar win for Best Director came with “The Departed,” a film that many people rank up there as one of his better pictures. But according to the filmmaker, if the studio had its way, “The Departed” would have been a very different film.

READ MORE: Martin Scorsese Warns About The “Danger” Of Franchise Filmmaking & Says “Manufactured Content” Isn’t Cinema

Speaking to GQ, Martin Scorsese talked about his career quite a bit. Much of the discussion, when looking back at his career, came to revolve around his reluctance to stay in the typical Hollywood studio system after some bad experiences. Of course, he talked about his run-ins with Harvey Weinstein’s studio, but just generally, the filmmaker slowly realized that he was better suited as an independent filmmaker, away from the clutches of studio heads. And one of those experiences came during the making of “The Departed,” where the studio executives had very different ideas than Scorsese about where the film should end.

For those that don’t remember, “The Departed” is a crime thriller starring Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio with all the twists and turns you come to expect. And perhaps the most memorable aspect is that both characters played by the stars die in the end. Scorsese revealed to GQ that the studio was hoping to keep both alive, and thus, continue “The Departed” as a franchise. 

“What they wanted was a franchise,” said Scorsese. “It wasn’t about a moral issue of a person living or dying.” 

READ MORE: ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’: Martin Scorsese Rewrote His New Film So He Wasn’t “Making A Movie About All The White Guys”

Scorsese, obviously, had other plans for the end of his film. Ultimately, the film went to test screenings, with the characters dying, and the reaction was that people were thrilled by the film. Well, the audience was. The studio was not. This was another example, in Scorsese’s mind, why the filmmaker was destined to leave the studio system.

“And then the studio guys walked out and they were very sad, because they just didn’t want that movie,” he added. “They wanted the franchise. Which means: I can’t work here any more.”

With hindsight, it’s difficult to imagine a world where Scorsese kept those characters alive and a franchise was born. Of course, “The Departed” is a remake of the Hong Kong action film, “Infernal Affairs,” which would go on to have its own sequels that were very popular. A Hollywood studio would be silly not to at least see if there was the possibility for more ‘Departed’ films to follow that same trajectory as the Hong Kong original. Alas, if you want a franchise starter, you probably don’t hire Martin Scorsese to direct.

Martin Scorsese’s newest film, definitely not the beginning of another franchise, is “Killers of the Flower Moon” and it arrives in theaters on October 20.