At PAX East, Cliff Bleszinski described an ending for Gears of War 3 that involved the planet Sera exploding, leading to a Gears of War 4 set on Earth and the Moon. Obviously that ending never happened, and Cliff Bleszinski is now directing the development of LawBreakers while Gears development is handled by Microsoft's studio, The Coalition. Yet the possibility of a Planet of the Apes-esque Gears of War ending is exciting to consider, even if it was just a passing idea from Bleszinski.

According to Bleszinski, the ending of Gears of War 3 would have gone to a much darker place than what ultimately occurred within the third-person shooter. Here's his summary:

"I can't remember the specifics, I think the Locust winded up burrowing back underground, and Sera exploded. The core of Sera, over many many years, wound up solidifying. And then all of a sudden you see a spaceman boot land on it, and you hear 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.' It turns out their moon was Earth, it was always like the Moon and the Earth in the past, and our Moon is the remnants of Sera."

For those unfamiliar with the Gears of War setting, the Locust were the primary antagonists of the trilogy and lived deep within the planet Sera. It's entirely plausible that they could burrow into Sera and "sleep" through the planet's destruction only to reawaken thousands, if not millions, of years later. Turning Sera into the Moon and Sera's moon into Earth, however, would have been quite a twist.

Bleszinski explained that producer Rod Fergusson, ex-Epic and current studio head for The Coalition, talked him out of the "far out there idea."

Reflecting on the Gears of War trilogy and his recollection of the wild ending that would never be, Belszinski admitted it probably had a lot to do with his frustrations at the time. Those frustrations include both the stress of trying to end a major trilogy like Gears and 10 years of development on just a single intellectual property.

Here's how Bleszinski described his though process regarding potentially blowing up Sera and bringing the Locust to Earth:

"Ending anything is always really hard. Like, go back to the ending to The Sopranos and that smash cut. I was getting tired of Gears. Wanting to blow up the entire planet was probably my frustration of having worked on that for ten years with all the crunch hours and stuff like that. It was probably too much."

Ultimately, the Gears of War 3 conclusion proved an exceptional ending to the trilogy without blowing up Sera or bringing the franchise to Earth. Nevertheless, it's fun to think about where Gears might be right now if Epic Games hadn't given the series' rights to Microsoft.

Cliff Bleszinski is currently working on multiplayer arena shooter LawBreakers with the studio he founded, Boss Key Studios. The Coalition, led by Rod Fergusson, released Gears of War 4 (which is not set on Earth) in 2016 and has yet to announce its next project.

Source: Destructoid