Missing Minutes of 'Lost' Finale to be Restored by Netflix Following Outcry

Love it or hate it, the Lost finale is what it is. Or at least it was, until Netflix aired a mysteriously shorter version than the one fans got six years ago when the famous show took its final bow. Now, angry fans (and an angry co-creator in Damon Lindelof), are clamoring for the original version to be put up on the streaming service.

It's being reported that a whopping 18 minutes of footage has been mysteriously deleted from the original, 104-minute version that audiences saw back in 2010.

According to Entertainment Weekly, co-creator of the show Damon Lindelof says he was completely unaware of the Netflix issue until EW brought the matter to his attention. He made a statement to EW, calling for the original to be restored:

"I am totally befuddled by all this. Love it or hate it, the finale that aired is the definitive finale and to alter it in any way defies explanation. Something tells me that this isn't Netflix's fault ... that it's an honest mistake and something got miscommunicated - I seem to remember ABC had to make an edit for rerun airings that tightened the show into 'format' (42 minutes to accommodate commercials), and somehow that [version] mistakenly got sent to Netflix. This sometimes happened with our finales - we'd ask for extra time and ABC would agree to air, but then we had to do another tighter version for subsequent airings and/or international [markets]. We usually left these (painful) cuts to the discretion of our editors... but as the show lives on in DVD form and on Netflix, there is ZERO reason to have the shorter version out there."

Lindelof also cautioned viewers about the possibility of real edited versions in the future, saying that the creators have "no intention of 'changing' nor Special Editioning" the finale of the show because they continue to stand by it. The message is clear: love it, or leave it.

Netflix is aware of the issue, and in response to EW's story, tweeted, "We are in the middle of correcting now, and will have the uncut version back streaming as soon as possible."

EW says both Netflix and ABC are working to figure out the issue and its possible origins. The show, which aired from 2004 to 2010 on ABC, starred Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Elizabeth Mitchell, Ian Somerhalder and more.