If you saw Alejandro González Iñárritu's Oscar-nominated Birdman, then you likely picked up on its meta-skewering of the Hollywood movie industry. In the film, Michael Keaton portrays a washed-up actor, Riggan Thomson, who used to play an iconic superhero and is gearing up for a Broadway play in hopes of reclaiming his former glory. Obviously, Keaton also played Batman in the 1989 and 1992 feature films directed by Tim Burton, which lent to Birdman's satirical dark comedy.
Ultimately, the film follows Riggan all the way to the end, where it ends on a somewhat ambiguous note. However, Birdman co-writer Alexander Dinelaris recently revealed on The Q&A Podcast (via Screen Rant) that he and Iñárritu originally had a different ending in mind: After shooting himself on-stage, Riggan would be seen getting interviewed on a talk show about the positive reception to his play. Then the focus would shift to another actor -- Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp.
Dinelaris explained, "The camera prowled like it did the whole film, [and] went backstage through the halls we've seen the whole time, and we'd get to the dressing room where literally Johnny Depp would be sitting looking in the mirror and putting on his Riggan Thomson wig, and then the poster of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 would be in the back. In Jack Sparrow's voice [Depp would say], 'What the f*** are we doing here, mate?' It was going to be the satire of the endless loop of that."
Dinelaris added that they couldn't get Depp nor the Pirates 5 poster cleared, so they ended up going with the ending seen in the finished film.