The Departed, the film that garnered Martin Scorsese his one and only Oscar for “Best Director,” would have had a completely different ending if Warner Bros. had their final say.

In an interview with GQ, Scorsese revealed that the studio had reportedly requested that one of the two leads in the 2006 crime thriller — Matt Damon (William Costigan Jr.) or Leonardo DiCaprio (Colin Sullivan) — remain alive.

Although Scorsese’s vision remained intact and *SPOILER* neither Damon nor DiCaprio live at the end of the film, the director claimed that “what [Warner Bros.] wanted was a franchise.”

“It wasn’t about a moral issue of a person living or dying,” he explained.

He recalled a test screening of the movie in which the audience really enjoyed it, but “the studio guys walked out and they were very sad.”

“Because they just didn’t want that movie,” he continued. “They wanted the franchise. Which means: I can’t work here any more.”

Scorsese has previously expressed his aversion to franchises like Marvel, highlighting the “danger” he thinks they present to our culture.

“Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those – that’s what movies are,” he noted.

He invoked the idea to “fight back stronger” and “to come from the grassroots level,” citing powerful filmmakers like the Safdie brothers and Christopher Nolan to help with the efforts.

He also elaborated on studios not being “interested any longer in supporting individual voices that express their personal feelings or their personal thoughts and personal ideas on a big budget.”

“And what’s happened now is that they’ve pigeonholed it to what they call indies,” he added.

The Departed is streaming on Netflix.