Tony Todd was allowed total creative control over his final scene, since he clearly didn't have much time left and the crew wanted him to have the final word of his career. His final monologue was one that the crew encouraged him to use to impart some last advice to fans.
Final film of actor Tony Todd before his death. He was visibly in rough shape while filming, but he pushed through to reprise his iconic role.
Producer Craig Perry said to Deadline in a interview that those on set knew that the project was likely to be Tony Todd's last while they were filming it. "We all knew that he was obviously quite ill, and it was pretty clear that this was going to be the last role he would play in a movie," Perry tells the trade. "And the fact that it was one of the Final Destination movies made it that much more poignant." Though the outlet doesn't go into detail, the upcoming movie apparently explains why Bludworth is so familiar with Death's plans in the other films, leaving him able to warn characters of what is coming. This is apparently done during a climactic monologue, which was adjusted due to the gravity of Todd's condition. "Zach [Lipovsky] and Adam [Stein], our directors, they made a very shrewd decision to take the last couple of lines that were scripted and say, 'Tony, just say what you would want to say to the fans. What would you like to impart to them in this moment?'" Perry recalls. "So, everything that makes that scene so emotional is authentic because that was just Tony talking through the camera to the very fans who supported him for so many years. So, it was a very magical moment on set. It was an impactful moment, and it's one I'll take with me until I go to the grave."
In the previous films of the franchise, the producers tried to schedule the filming of a character's death scene on the actor's last day of filming. During the making of this film, most of the actors had to film their death scenes on their very first day.
71-year-old stuntwoman Yvette Ferguson came out of retirement for a fire stunt in the premonition scene, which director Zach Lipovsky believes to be a world record for the oldest person set on fire on camera. Ferguson admitted to enjoy the experience and recounted how the makeup artists would encourage her by turning on the songs like "Burn, Baby, Burn" and "Great Balls of Fire."