For those who have binged all eight installments of Netflix’s fresh comedy, The Four Seasons, and have also viewed the original film that inspired the series, the conclusion might still be astonishingly unexpected. Who would have predicted such a twist?

This goes without saying but we’ll say it anyway, spoilers ahead for the finale of The Four Seasons.

During a conversation with DECIDER about the phenomenal hit featuring Tina Fey, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, among others, creators Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher — who crafted the series alongside Fey — explained their decision to end with the demise of Nick (played by Steve Carell) in Episode 7, “Ski Trip.” In contrast, the 1981 movie by Alan Alda had Nick (Len Cariou) and Ginny (Bess Armstrong) revealing a pregnancy – akin to 2025’s Ginny (Erika Henningsen) announcing her own pregnancy in Episode 8, “Fun” — with no characters meeting an end in the film.

Wigfield and Fisher shared that their decision to significantly alter the original storyline had been part of discussions since the early stages of adapting the project for television.

“I think it came in pretty early,” Wigfield said of having Carell’s character die. “The show is about middle age and it’s about these lifelong friendships. And it’s like, when we pitched the show, you know there were a lot of shows about murder and aliens and whatever. And this is not that. This is about real-life human stakes, but they’re terrifying enough.”

Furthermore, the reasoning for the decision had a lot to do with their own life experiences and the realities of getting older. According to the Great News creator and the Never Have I Ever EP, it wasn’t their aim to do something shocking, but rather, something realistic as art imitates life.

“When you are in your 50s, it’s not insane that someone dies. Your parents are dying and it’s not insane that a friend dies. And so, getting to see these friends through the end of a relationship and all these other things, it felt right to see your friends are there for the best times, but also for the worst times,” Wigfield added. “That’s the whole deal of it.”

As for what made them want to adapt the film in the first place and how they filled out the ensemble — including which characters were the hardest to cast — keep reading for DECIDER’S full interview with Fisher and Wigfield.

DECIDER: I wanna start with the fact that this is an adaptation. What was your intention when you first decided to sit down and think, “Can we make this a TV show?”

LANG FISHER: Well, I think Tina has been a fan of the movie for a very long time. It was sort of her spearheading the decision to adapt it. And I think we loved the structure, that you have four trips in four different seasons and that seemed perfect for a season of television. I just knew that we needed to have like a bit more plot. And develop the characters a bit more. So we kind of just had to add a little meat to the bones of it. But it felt pretty natural as a TV idea.

TRACEY WIGFIELD: I think the three of us were talking first just about Tina wanting to do a show that she would act in. So Lang and I were like, “Great, we’d love to write it.” And I think all three of us were sort of in the same mindset that we’d like to do something that, more than the other shows we’ve written before, felt a little more grounded, human scale, emotional, looked pretty, maybe took place somewhere pretty. And then we were talking about different ideas and Tina kept bringing up just as like a comp, “What if it was like the Four Seasons? You know that movie, The Four Seasons? I love that movie and it’s about friendship and it about marriage. I want it to be a show like that.” And so finally Lang and I were like, “Okay, maybe we should just watch The Four Seasons.” We’re like, oh, let’s do that. We should do that and she, you know and I think it was a movie that’s been close to her heart like Lang was saying for a long time. So, you now, so then once we. Sort of knew we were going to do this new version of it, yeah, it felt kind of organic and natural to what we were looking to do anyway.

Organic is the perfect word because it feels so natural to make it a TV show. And I think there are so many great changes here, including Claudia to Claude. Were there any other discussions about changing any of the other characters?

WIGFIELD: I think the characters are a little different. I would say Alan’s Jack is different than our Jack. I think we tried to be really open to casting and who we cast, and once Will was our Jack, we kind of rewrote him a certain way to be this kind of guy with a heart of gold who is, you know, a little bit needy and a little of a hypochondriac. And we were taking from our marriages and writers in the rooms’ marriages. So he is different. So we did adjust the characters, but before we cast, I think we kind of did start from, “Now what are the types in the show?”

Fisher: And there are a few characters in this show, like Anne, for instance, she sort of disappears in the movie kind of halfway through, you kind of lose her. And so, you know, for Kerri [Kenney-Silver], we were like, “Let’s just build this character out into something.” Kerri is so wonderful in the show that we were really having a great time giving her this kind of fully formed character who is her own as she deals with her marriage falling apart.

I think Anne and Ginny might have been the two most difficult since there is so much weight on these characters. Did you have people in mind from the start or did it evolve?

WIGFIELD: No, we cast them both and they weren’t and — we wrote Steve’s part for Steve — but they were both roles we saw auditions. I think you’re right, they are hard roles to cast because you’ve also seen those characters before. You’ve seen a younger woman dating an older guy and a woman whose husband left her and her life is falling apart. For both of them, you needed actresses who were funny, but also could play real emotional depth. And I think for Erika, playing Ginny specifically, it couldn’t just be a Gen Z influencer that you hate. I think it’s only good because she is sort of sweet and good-hearted, the actress and the character.

Absolutely. Did you guys have a favorite relationship or dynamic that you explored and did you ever have to pull back because you were doing too much with one pair?

FISHER: We did sort of balance it and make sure we weren’t focusing on one couple too much, but it wasn’t always the same couple. Sometimes you’d be in an episode and it would be like, we’re doing too much Danny and Claude and then it’s like, “We gotta dial it back,” and then the next episode would be too much Jack and Kate. And I think we just tried to make sure that we were giving each couple their time and making sure you got to see the inner workings of all of them.

For those who fall in love with this show and then jump over to your other shows, what would you like people to know as they maybe explore Great News or Never Have I Ever?

WIGFIELD: For Great News, it’s a very different show, you know? Great News, I had just come off of 30 Rock and The Mindy Project and so it was a network comedy that I think’s really funny and I think holds up. But yeah, it is a hard comedy where this is more of a kind of emotional human scale. It’s a comedy still, but it’s just a lot more grounded than that.

FISHER: Never Have I Ever, it’s gonna be a big age jump from this show to that. but it still has like pathos and emotions. But, you know if you’re interested in seeing some teenagers who have a lot of drama and feelings, that’s also available to you on Netflix.

You guys are great with complex characters and ones that deliver great lines. Do you have any favorites from this show that stick in your head? Mine was “these were made by demented children.”

WIGFIELD: I like that line too, a lot. It was often almost cut for being too stupid, but I always fought for it and I liked it too, so thank you. There were so many that were between Kate and Jack… I related to it a lot. Tina had one joke where she and Colman are talking about like, “Oh, well, do you wish you could sleep with other people?” And she’s like, “Ew, no, I’m not out here looking to see a new set of thickening toenails,” which I thought was so gross and so funny. It’s so real about how women feel when you’ve been married for a long time and you’re in your 40s and 50s. I don’t wanna go be with somebody else. I don’t wanna go start this again with some new old man. It’s just you want a spark and I thought it was a very funny joke also true.

For people who have seen the movie and think they know the ending, they might be surprised by some changes. How did you land on the deviations?

WIGFIELD: I think it came in pretty early. The show is about middle age and it’s about these lifelong friendships. And it’s like, when we pitched the show, you know there were a lot of shows about murder and aliens and whatever. And this is not that. This is about real-life human stakes, but they’re terrifying enough. When you are in your 50s, it’s not insane that someone dies. Your parents are dying and it’s not insane that a friend dies. And so, getting to see these friends through the end of a relationship and all these other things, it felt right to also see your friends are there for the best times, but also for the worst times. That’s the whole deal of it.

The Four Seasons is currently streaming on Netflix.