The True Story Of The Lost Se7en Prequel
Who was John Doe BEFORE his deadly sins murders?
It may not seem particularly long since it was screened in cinemas, but Se7en actually turned 24 years old this past January. The film, which starred A-listers Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, was rightly hailed a masterpiece by critics and audiences alike. In fact, it’s still considered to be one of the very best in cinema, sitting at number 20 on IMDb’s top 250 films of all time.
Also, given that the social issues that it tackles are quite hard hitting, specifically our habit of putting our heads in the sand as a species. It’s a film that everyone should see, even if it’s just once, especially if you like a good thriller/mystery.
So, with a film of that calibre now out in the world, it was only a matter of time before someone made moves to cash in on its popularity. Originally - and somewhat notoriously - there were plans to make a sequel that would have turned the entire world of Se7en upside down. That pitch would have turned Morgan Freeman's detective into a psychic out of nowhere on the hunt of another serial killer.
If you actually want to watch that movie you can, as it was eventually made as Solace. It's not very good. But on top of that sequel pitch there was also a prequel pitch too, which was announced under the title Virtue and some new information on it has come to light recently.
Screenwriters Damien Shannon and Mark Swift revealed the news, confirming that Virtue actually took longer than you would think for the gears to start churning, taking a whole decade before the news broke that a prequel was in the works.
Not much was revealed about the prequel, except for a few juicy details. Namely that it was going to be titled Virtue and was meant to focus on the life of John Doe, showing the antagonist from Se7en before the events of the film even took place. However, as with its 1996 predecessor, there’s a twist in this tale. The connection to Se7en, being that it was an origin story of its villain, was only going to be revealed in the final scene.
The rumours first started in 2006 but revelation about the twist ending came about quite recently in fact. The screenwriters who were behind the proposed prequel, Shannon and Swift, disclosed the info in a tweet relating to weird pitches that never got made.
It’s also pertinent to mention that David Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker, the director and creator of the original film respectively, wanted nothing to do with a prequel. When you’re able to create something that garners as much respect as Se7en did, it’s probably best to leave it there and call it quits, so who can really blame them for walking away.
Although the concept of a plot twist is as old as the concept of fiction itself, this kind of twist would have been one of the first of its kind, joining two stories you didn’t know were connected. The best example is probably M Night Shyamalan’s, 2016 thriller, Split. In a post credits scene, it’s revealed that the film actually takes place in the same universe as Unbreakable.
In the end however, and as you will be aware, the script was subsequently thrown into the abyss of movies that could have been. Alongside Superman Lives with Nic Cage as the man of steel himself and an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings starring The Beatles, we’ll never know why John Doe became John Doe. Who knows though, there’s maybe an alternate universe out there where all these films exist? It’s probably a good thing that it’s not this universe though.