Apparently the original ending to “Pretty Woman” was VERY dark

Your favorite movie almost had a totally different ending. In a new interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former chairman over at Disney, Pretty Woman almost ended with a death. And not just any death — the death of Vivian Ward, played by Julia Roberts.

It sounds ridiculous, right? Well, it’s a good thing that it ended up getting rewritten. Katzenberg did a Q&A over at Hearst Tower in New York City, and that’s when the truth came out.

"As a script, Pretty Woman was an R-rated movie about a hooker on Hollywood Boulevard," he said. "By the way, in the original version — it's pretty dark — I think she died of an overdose."

Of course, Disney — who owns Touchstone Pictures — wasn’t too happy about the outcome. Disney can get a bit dark at times (RIP, Mufasa) but this would have been devastating. Plus, there’s a good chance that the movie wouldn’t have become a classic had this ending occurred.

And, don’t even think about the ripple effect. Since Pretty Woman inspired so many other movies, just imagine what the world of cinema would have been like had Vivian Ward suffered such a fatal ending.

"Convincing [people] that we should make that at the Walt Disney Co., and that it's a fairy tale and a princess movie, a lot of people had a hard time seeing it," Katzenberg continued. "But, as they say, the rest is history."

It seems as if executive producer Laura Ziskin was partially responsible for the change. While it wasn’t really a secret that the film used to be a lot grittier, she’s the one who made a bunch of changes. Screenwriter J.F. Lawton is also credited for editing the movie down before it hit the big screen.

And, we’ve got a lot to thank them for. It’s no surprise that Pretty Woman became a huge success.

If Katzenberg was right, and Vivian died from an overdose, we’re not quite sure we would have rewatched it so many times!