Disney's HAUNTED MANSION Movie Originally Had a Darker Ending

Disney’s Haunted Mansion may not be blowing up at the box office like Barbie or Oppenheimer, but it’s still a fun flick worth checking out! While I would have much rather seen what Guillermo del Toro was going to do with it, director Justin Simien’s version still delivered a solid film that did a great job capturing the spirit of the ride.

The movie ended leaving audiences with an uplifting sense of optimism. But, that wasn’t the original plan for the film’s conclusion. According to the film's director, the original ending was a lot darker, but that all changed after LaKeith Stanfield was cast in the lead role.

During an interview with THR, Simien was asked about Haunted Mansion's epilogue, which featured all of the main characters celebrating Halloween together. When talking about the original ending and why it changed, he said:

"The epilogue was certainly a late addition. The first version of the movie that I encountered had a bit more of a darker ending, one that I actually really respected and enjoyed, but I correctly guessed that it maybe wouldn't get past the sort of Disney machine. But once we cast LaKeith, there was something that changed about what I personally needed from the ending of the movie. Frankly, I didn't want to see a Black man have a tragic end in a movie like this. I wanted him to have hope at the end of the movie, and a tragic end for a Black character would've been really hard to swallow, at least for me right now. So we went with something a bit more hopeful, but there was probably something to the other version as well."

I’m curious to know what the original ending was, but I was fine with what we got. The ending of the film worked, and it makes sense to have more of an uplifting ending, especially for a family horror film.

The movie is inspired by the classic theme park attraction, and the clip teases a few little Easter eggs that I’m sure fans will notice. Haunted Mansion “is about a woman and her son who enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.”

The movie features an all-star ensemble cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Rosario Dawson, and Danny DeVito, with Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota, Winona Ryder, Dan Levy, and Hasan Minhaj. Then there’s Jared Leto, who is taking on the role of the infamous Hatbox Ghost.