Devon Sawa is renowned in the world of horror – from his early roles in Casper and Idle Hands to the Chucky TV series and Final Destination. Despite appearing in one of five films so far, his stint as Alex Browning in Final Destination has gone down in horror history with fans still begging for his return as a sixth film has been announced.
Unfortunately, those hoping to see the Heart Eyes star reprise his role for Final Destination: Bloodlines are so far shit out of luck as he has not featured among any cast announcements — unline Tony Todd, who has been confirmed to return to the franchise as William Bludworth. However, this doesn't necessarily mean we won't see him. We all remember the rumors surrounding Skeet Ulrich's Scream return, right? And those same whispers have begun as Final Destination 6 approaches.
However…There is the little hurdle of Alex being killed off to contend with. But when has that little spanner in the works ever stopped a horror film? Here are 4 ways we think Devon Sawa could return for Final Destination 6.
In a flashback or premonition
When watching a Final Destination film, you can guarantee three things: a group of people will cheat death, they will all eventually die in spectacular fashion, and it'll all be made possible by a premonition. It has never been explained how characters suddenly get these visions, which is something that could be revealed in Bloodlines. So far, they have seen characters look into the future to see a catastrophic event unfold and avoid it, but with Final Destination 6 reportedly breaking the mold, maybe this time around, we could see our lead characters look into the past for answers.
Of course, there is also the possibility of a flashback finally telling us more about Alex's sudden, off-camera demise. It has already been revealed that Candyman icon Todd will return to his iconic role of William Bludworth, who guided the previous films' lost souls with his mysterious knowledge of death. If we learn more about the character, we could also delve into his past in the franchise to get those answers — as well as the people he has previously helped.
As a ghost
Okay, hear us out on this one, because stranger things have happened in the world of horror. Look at The Amityville franchise.
With Alex's death confirmed in the bonus features of Final Destination 3, maybe there is a chance his ghost will return at some point to taunt the unwitting victims of Bloodlines. Death, though we've never seen it in a physical form, is a character within its own right in the franchise, touching on the concept of otherworldly beings.
It has also been reported that the original draft of Final Destination was set to be a whole lot darker, with hauntings aplenty, so the idea of ghosts has been floated before. Speaking to JoBlo, original creator Jeffrey Reddick revealed the sinister first draft of Final Destination he conjured:
“In my draft, Alex's best friend Tod (Waggner, Chad Donella) rigged up a noose in his garage. He was a preacher's son and stole stuff from his dad. He was calling his father on his car phone to say he was sorry. When the dad came home and opened the garage, he hung himself. Carter (Horton, Kerr Smith) jumps in front of a subway train and kills himself. There are remnants of the deaths in the film. In the script, he was still a jerk, but he felt really guilty after his girlfriend died. You saw this other side of him when he was grieving.
“I had written a sister who stayed on the plane and a sister who got off the plane, which was changed to two brothers [Tod and his brother]. The sister who died in the plane crash was the straight-A student. The other was the one always getting into trouble. Her sister started haunting her, and so she started dressing like her sister and acting like her sister. When she couldn't be her sister, she set herself on fire.
“There was another character who had attempted suicide before the plane crash. She started getting haunted by all the people who had died before her. She ended up killing herself. Terry (Chaney, Amanda Detmer) was still dating Carter. But because he was so demanding of her, she was bulimic. She died earlier in my draft, and Carter was haunted by her. She shows up and torments him at a subway station, saying, ‘Do you know what I did to myself to look beautiful for you?' She starts puking her intestines out, which is an homage to Gates of Hell, an old Italian horror film. That drives Carter to jump in front of the train.
“The finale was Clear (Rivers, Ali Larter) going back to the crash site and reliving the plane crash. She was standing on the ground, and the plane literally crashed on top of her. All her dead friends showed up around her. She had a gun, and death was basically tormenting her to kill herself.” And that almost makes what we actually got seem playful and whimsical — but it supports the theory that ghosts are a possibility in the world of Final Destination.
He never actually died
Stick with me here. If we discard the bonus features on Final Destination 3 that inform us of Alex's untimely end, there's a chance Alex survived his ordeal and is right there, ready and waiting for another gruesome dance with death. Sawa was set to return for Final Destination 2 and become a key character in the franchise's future, but it never came to be.
Reddick told Collider: “I wanted to bring both Alex and Clear back. There were some issues with scheduling and stuff with getting Devon Sawa back, and I got annoyed how they just killed him off with a brick, which I thought was a big F you. That's really my only complaint with Final Destination 2.” Sawa separately explained to ComicBook.com that it “didn't work out” in the pre-production phase, and the franchise hasn't seen a return for Alex since.
So due to scheduling conflicts, his character met a seemingly brutal demise off screen…Or did he?
He lives on through his child
This is the last time we need you to hear us out — but this theory isn't as wild as it may seem. If Alex isn't dead or wandering the mortal realm as a specter, we could follow him through his own child. The title of Final Destination 6 is Bloodlines, after all.
The first Final Destination film actually has an entirely different ending that never came to be (featured in the DVD special features deleted scenes), where we would have discovered Clear was pregnant with Alex's child after the couple got busy on the beach before meeting Carter and Billy Hitchcock (Seann William Scott) at their school. Later on, Alex sadly dies after the live wire sets him on fire, incinerating him so he can save Clear, and Alexander Chance Browning was born.
Another idea Reddick had was that Clear perished after bringing new life into the world, with him telling Collider: “If I had them both back, I had always planned on killing Clear, but I wanted to keep Alex alive. I had a cool twist at the end where it still was, you know, she has a life that saves her life, but then death gets her once she has the kid, and Alex is still kind of the torch-bearer. That was my original take, but with the scheduling stuff, we ended up with no Alex. And I'm like, ‘Ah, if I'd known we weren't gonna bring Alex back, I would have not have killed Clear,' because I love bringing original people back, but I don't like killing them.”
The title of the sixth film evokes a sense of familial ties and the importance of blood (in more ways than one, we expect), so it seems possible that we could meet them in Bloodlines — or even have them as one of our protagonists cheating death. Like father, like son.
