LOST may have wrapped six years ago, but the mystery continues to reach new frontiers, after fans noticed that the two-part series finale is approximately 18 minutes shorter on Netflix than the 104-minute version that aired in 2010 on ABC.
In a statement to EW, series showrunner Damon Lindelof said he was “befuddled” by the missing footage and urged the streaming giant to rectify the issue:
“I am totally befuddled by all this. Love it or hate it, the finale that aired is the definitive finale and to alter it in any way defies explanation. Something tells me that this isn’t Netflix’s fault … that it’s an honest mistake and something got miscommunicated — I seem to remember ABC had to make an edit for rerun airings that tightened the show into ‘format’ (42 minutes to accommodate commercials), and somehow that [version] mistakenly got sent to Netflix. This sometimes happened with our finales — we’d ask for extra time and ABC would agree to air, but then we had to do another tighter version for subsequent airings and/or international [markets]. We usually left these (painful) cuts to the discretion of our editors… but as the show lives on in DVD form and on Netflix, there is ZERO reason to have the shorter version out there.”
He added:
“I have no intention of ‘changing’ nor Special Editioning the finale … we continue to stand by it, but this is a fix that needs to happen, so at least people can love or hate it in its entirety. #WhatHappenedHappened #RestoreTheLostFinale.”
Netflix is reportedly looking into the matter…
UPDATE: Netflix puts the edited finale down to a “glitch” and say they’re “working on correcting with the unedited versions as we speak.”
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