They literally played in Wendy Christensen fans faces!
I have a few examples of why I believe the directors of the final destination movies literally played in the faces of Elizabeth Winstead character Wendy Christensen
Here are a few touch points that some fans mean or may not know:
Example 1: in the auditions for final destination, two for the character Kimberly, Corman Elizabeth Winsteads audition for the role of Kimberly, but was denied her character in favor of AJ Cook’s performance who ultimately got the role of Kimberly Coleman for final destination 2 although she did not get the role of Kimberly, they didn’t completely do away with the actress, instead allowing her to be the next protagonist and the next installment of the movie, which was final destination 3 characters Wendy Christensen which she ultimately did get the role for that movie.
Example 2:The theatrical cut of Final Destination 3 ends the subway premonition on a cut-to-black just before the crash to induce panic and maximize tension. This allowed the franchise to conclude with the bleak theme that Death is inescapable without confirming the exact, gruesome details of how the survivors died
The filmmakers intentionally left Wendy Christensen's ultimate fate up to debate. If the story had to continue, the ending gave directors enough ambiguity to revive her, but if the series ended, it left audiences with the terrifying, unresolved feeling that the characters had met their unavoidable demise thus allowing her character to just be up in the air. additionally, in the choose DVD bonus, which actually had a bit of a humorous twist to it for the characters that actually got to survive tho i personally believe that was not funny for those who were fully invested in the performance that Elizabeth gave for the character Wendy only for her life and fate to be more or less a gag rather than anything relevant or serious again playing in her face and her fans faces.
Example 3: it is a interesting known fact that Kimberly and Wendy was actually supposed to be in the ending of final destination three to have met at the subway station which it was discovered that they were actually cousins, but for whatever reason this was also scrapped due to the inconsistencies or unavailability of the actual actors at the time, had this actually been Cannon Wendy and Kimberly would have been canonically cousins making a deeper connection between final destination 2 and 3 me personally I really wish that this was the case because it would make both their characters much more relatable(no pun intended) for the fans who may have been fans of both characters like myself(at the time) thus giving Wendy’s fans, another slap/ punch to the face.
Example 4: entertainment weekly released a video titled Every 'Final Destination' Death Explained, where franchise producer Craig Perry breaks down the kills, or the movie's official DVD audio commentary.
In that video when it came to Wendy Christiansen‘s character’s death, Perry explains that her death and I quote”Wendy, Kevin, and Julie all explicitly died in the subway derailment at the end of Final Destination 3” noting that despite the theatrical release leaving their deaths ambiguous, he explicitly confirmed that they all died in a very gruesome way this left fans like myself at the time, undoubtably, upset and angry that the fact that Wendy’s character was efficiently and canonically dead meaning that she could not return to the series. The part that hurts deep about this revelation is the fact that Kimberly Corman a character in final destination. 2 had her death confirmed in the newspapers clipping in the” choose your fate” bonus DVD release that Officer Burke and Kimberly were officially dead basically confirming what happened to them for many years fans of those characters like myself took that as official news but in the final destination death, explain video Perry confirmed when talking about final destination six that, that was recon and should not be taken as Canon meaning that for all these years up until that point their deaths were canonically true only to turn back and say that to choose your fate DVD bonus was not Canon in validating all death that may or may not have happened or occurred on the DVD bonus, thus allowing the characters Burke and Kimberly’s fate to be left ambiguous giving this information and knowing what we know now about both Kimberly and Wendy’s deaths, they deliberately decided to kill off Wendy’s character, while deliberately reversing the death for Kimberly, further putting the knife deeper in fans of Wendy who at one point had hoped that she would return to the series on top of this they also had the character mentioned and final destination 6 by the character Williams bludworths saying that there has only been one character, Kimberly, who broke the chain of death, now as a Kimberly fan hearing this revelation that she is still alive made me really happy as a Wendy fan this further upset at me because they literally had similar scenarios were both characters deaths in the original theatrical release was left ambiguous but yet they decided to bring back Kimberly and not Wendy not only reversing Kimberly’s stuff, but cementing that Wendy is indeed dead. The disrespect to Wendy character was on another level at every point in turn they failed this character. They had opportunities to allow Wendy fans to have more from the character, but decided to scrap every ideal and every scenario that could’ve made her character stand out as she was a fan favorite among the whole entire series.
Example 5: Additionally, the actress AJ Cook, who played Kimberly in Final Destination 2, was used to promote Final Destination 6 in various blooper clips, further taunting Wendy fans by reminding them that their favorite character is no longer alive.
Thus concludes my reasoning behind why I believe the directors and producers of the Final Destination movies deliberately disregarded Wendy fans, forever tarnishing that character. In Final Destination 7, we remain unaware of their intentions regarding the character Kimberly. However, I firmly believe they will elevate her status to unprecedented heights compared to previous years of the movie. While I am a devoted Kimberly fan, as an ex-Wendy fan (no longer), I find it difficult to wholeheartedly defend her character. In my mind, the best course of action would be to retire her entirely.