Paul Heyman discussed the development of WWE’s The Bloodline storyline over the last several years in an interview with Phil Schneider of TheRinger.com.
“I’m a huge proponent of writing the last page of the script first. It’s always to the advantage of long-term storytelling. I don’t think it was ever done better, ever, than the Brian De Palma–directed movie Carlito’s Way, because the very first frame of the movie tells you the ending. The first scene in that movie is the end of the movie. Then you’re taken on a ride with these characters that are so layered. The audience is truly emotionally invested in them to such a degree that when you know the movie is coming to the conclusion, you have forgotten what the ending is, and you’re rooting for Carlito, even though you were just told less than two hours ago he’s going to die on that train platform at the hands of this person in front of his soon-to-be bride. The magnificence of that storytelling is, to this day, so dramatically underappreciated. I’ve always been of the belief that the launch of the story is the first push toward the conclusion. The finish is everything.”
“All that being said. I think I would suggest the ending of this story has already been rewritten multiple times because the world has changed since the inception of the Bloodline story. Therefore, what was a clear vision of how this should play out almost four years ago changed along the way based on not only the audience’s investment in the characters and the stories but the world itself—society itself, pop culture itself, sports culture itself has all changed, and now we can see the trajectory that we’ve been on takes us so much further than we ever initially imagined.”
