One reason for the change is that over the years, Harrison Ford had expressed some serious doubts as to whether he would be willing to return for the final movie in the trilogy—unlike his younger co-stars, he hadn't signed a three-film deal. Sadly, Rogue One Blu-Ray didn't let us see these scenes—meaning it joins the rest of the Star Wars saga in lettings its alternate endings be struck down, thus becoming more powerful in fans' imaginations than the creators could possibly imagine. Therefore, while Star Wars ends with a classic adventure ending, it also leaves the doors open for other adventures to come. Was Krennic piloting that thing? Watch below. Ultimately, she would have been the one to fire the pivotal shot that destroys the Trade Federation ship and effectively wins the battle. It’s remarkable how well it leads into the first scene from A New Hope, featuring the Rebels defending Princess Leia from Darth Vader and the ongoing Storm Troopers. Here's where it gets weird, though: Vader was supposed to careen into Han's ship, forcing Han and Chewbacca to eject and leaving it to C-3PO, who'd been riding shotgun, to make the fateful shot that destroys the Death Star. There's still much for Luke to learn before he can claim the title of Jedi knight, and ending the story here would kind of be like ending the story of King Arthur before he became, you know, king. In Star Wars, Act I runs from the start until the point where the Millennium Falcon is captured by the Death Star. We later see her in a forest clearing after Order 66 has been issued, and as the clones close in to try to kill her, forest wolves (possibly summoned by Ahsoka) close in around them and end up killing all the clones before they can destroy the former Jedi. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. That means the droid wasn't originally meant to die (or whatever happens to droids) defending the archive room. The look at Jyn's Imperial outfit coincides with the final line of a cut monologue from Saw Gerrera: "What will you become?" In the context of Galen's work with the Empire and his later attempts to evade them, Saw's words would make a lot more sense. Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. In fact, we last see her when she's kicked out of the Jedi order for a crime she didn't commit. Originally, however, she was supposed to factor very prominently in the end of Clone Wars. Instead of everything happening as a weird comedy of errors, Padme serves as a badass commander, ordering other pilots to make pivotal attacks against weak points so they can make a final strike. He wanted to leave Tatooine, become a pilot, and fight the Empire, and he's done exactly that. The idea was to basically subvert audience expectations, as Han would have been dramatically rescued at the beginning of the film and then suddenly killed later, after audiences thought he was safe. And, as Obi-Wan warned Vader, the Jedi master would become "more powerful than" Vader "could possibly imagine," as he could now advise Luke wherever he went, including the Death Star trench. You don't have to scavenge the internet like a Jawa to find these secrets—just check out this midichlorian-free guide to the wildest ways that Star Wars almost ended. And, of course, if Han can die, it means anyone can, adding a lot of tension to the rest of the movie. What's interesting is that this shot of Jyn limping across the Scarif communications tower is, of course, in the final film. Han Solo's death is of the most heartbreaking scenes in Force Awakens. Take it from the Greek myths: You don't want to hold the camera on the heroes for too long, or things start to get weird. According to George Lucas biographer Dale Pollack, early scripts for Revenge of the Sith included a plot regarding a "torrid love triangle" between the three characters. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. After Brackett succumbed to cancer in 1978, Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan made some pretty dramatic changes, moving away from the draft in which Luke actually sees Anakin Skywalker's Force ghost when he's on Dagobah (charmingly known in this script as "the bog planet"), so when he does confront Vader later, there's no dramatic revelation of paternity. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. Han Solo, who only cared about himself, selflessly returned to help Luke, whom he's grown to care for. As Obi-Wan said earlier, he has taken his "first steps into a larger world.". Basically, the early scripts for Return of the Jedi read like the writers were told it couldn't get more depressing than Empire Strikes Back, and said "here, hold my beer" (or maybe just "hold my blue milk"). Speaking of that early Empire Strikes Back script, one of the notable differences from the final movie is that Han wasn't supposed to be frozen in carbonite. And what about this great shot of Krennic marching amongst the dead? By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. In fact, parts of the film really were overhauled—including the ending. Good has defeated evil. And Luke would have been dead in space if Han Solo hadn't shown up in the nick of time. This change would have had profound effects on the rest of the Star Wars mythology. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. While there's no denying the power of the "I am your father" reveal, it's interesting to imagine a Star Wars universe in which Vader is an entirely different character who potentially has entirely different motivations for his servitude to the evil Emperor. It's neat for understanding Force mythology and Yoda himself, but it doesn't really illuminate much about favorite characters like Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Anakin's apprentice, Ahsoka Tahno. The death of Obi-Wan Kenobi is a central element in the original Star Wars trilogy—a moment representing a character sacrificing himself for the survival of a greater good. In the final movie, of course, they were leaving on a mission to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt. The destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope was presented as a kind of miracle. Or was it even just cut into the trailer to keep audiences off the scent? In one of the original endings, things start going down in a very familiar way, with Vader still essentially sacrificing his life to help Luke defeat the Emperor, and Luke helping Vader take off his helmet. Despite being the ruler of the planet, Amidala spends half of the movie being rescued or helped by other characters, and the other half being forced to do weird, menial tasks by one of her handmaidens posing as the Queen. Speaking of Empire Strikes Back, everyone knows about its stunning revelation that Darth Vader was secretly Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker. Star Wars serves up a classic adventure ending. It has also been confirmed that Saw Gerrera will return for season three of Star Wars Rebels, the TV series set two years before the events of Rogue One. While this obviously did not happen, the fact that it was once the plan makes it a little less weird that people have speculated Luke could take some sort of villainous turn in Episode VIII or Episode IX. However, Obi-Wan in A New Hope was telling the only truth he knew, as Vader wasn't originally supposed to be Luke's father. Straight off the bat, that instantly infamous line from Felicity Jones' Jyn Erso - "This is a rebellion, isn't it? This, however, is where it gets weird—Luke was then going to put on Vader's mask and say "Now I am Vader." As revealed by director Gareth Edwards before the film’s release, the final 10 minutes lead directly into the original Star Wars trilogy, with Princess Leia being handed the Death Star plans. We see multiple shots of Jyn and Cassian running along the Scarif beach with the Death Star plans. Early drafts of Return of the Jedi had Han Solo dying while raiding an Imperial base. Of course, the actual action was disappointing, both because of the forgettable CGI as well as the script calling for Jake Lloyd's Anakin to accomplish everything of significance by accident, making death-defying dodges because he suddenly thinks spinning would be a "cool trick" and blowing the station up from the inside by hitting random buttons inside his starfighter. Clone Wars might have seemed at first like a cheap Star Wars cash grab, but this beloved animated series ended up telling complex stories set during the prequels—that were often much better than the prequels themselves. He also used what Obi-Wan taught him about the Force to defeat the enemy. Remember: Obi-Wan Kenobi said that Darth Vader killed Luke's father, so there's still a plot thread left to resolve. In fact, the trailer footage seems to hint at a drastically different ending, which may point to what exactly got changed during the re-shoots. Darth Vader, the cyborg who killed Obi-Wan, has been defeated… for now. We'll never see this on the big screen, but it's fun to imagine a galaxy far, far away in which countless lives were saved by a prissy golden droid who hates space travel. Most importantly, our protagonist, Luke, has succeeded in his goals. It doesn't exactly add anything to the story, but it's an added touch of grit which sets the tone nicely in the trailers. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. K-2SO has many similar lines directed to Jyn throughout the film, but they're a lot less sinister than this one. All rights reserved. Having Padme as a gunner not only would have fixed the misguided attempts at humor and happenstance that hindered this sequence, but it would have given her more to do. This doesn't stop him from hanging around the Ewok campfire for the happy ending, but Return of the Jedi almost ended with Luke embracing pure evil. In early drafts of the script, however, it wasn't nearly as hard to destroy the Death Star—in fact, C-3PO was the one who did it. Leia, whose mission was to save the rebellion, brought the information that did just that. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. A lot of the final bits of the movie are still in place in this early draft, such as Han being betrayed by Lando in a city in the clouds and the heroes eventually escaping into space. Ultimately, Luke Skywalker had a very bittersweet ending in Return of the Jedi. Han and Chewie were actually going off to meet a man named Ovan Marekal—Han's stepfather and the leader of an influential transport guild that Han hopes to lure into the Rebellion. If the show had gone on longer, the creators imagined an interesting arc for Ahsoka that involved the character surviving in Coruscant's grimy underbelly, falling in love with a scoundrel, and even returning to the Jedi (but as an advisor rather than a Jedi knight). Other times, though, the scrutiny comes from wistful fans thinking of how a few simple changes could have made the prequels better. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. As a bonus, all of the character's arcs have come to satisfying conclusions as well. Before Star Wars, films didn't typically end with cliffhangers promising sequels. Of all of the opportunities missed by changed Star Wars endings, this is really one of the saddest. During these scenes, we learn about Princess Leia's capture and the Rebel's struggle against the evil Empire. The confusing part here is that Saw is seen with the close-cropped hair he sports only in the prologue scenes, when Jyn is only a child. Generations of ardent Star Wars enthusiasts can repeat every line of every scene from every movie, word for word. In other ways, the film's ending broke the mold—or at least what was the mold before Hollywood decided every movie needed to fit the Star Wars model. Several pilots gave their lives during the assault, … He's making an effort to redeem his Vader-adoring son Kylo Ren, just like Luke was eventually able to redeem Vader, but he fails—and is run through with a lightsaber before unceremoniously falling into one of those ever-present Star Wars pits. It was terrible, but it was almost improved by one unexpected element: Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala. And even earlier drafts of the movie had Rey meeting Luke "on the road" like she meets Han Solo.