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Star Wars: Rogue One nearly included another killer Darth Vader scene

Darth Vader during the epic final scene of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. (Credit: LucasFilm)
Darth Vader during the epic final scene of ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’. (Credit: LucasFilm)

By now you’ve probably read about ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’s original ending, but it’s been revealed that wasn’t the only potential scene that didn’t make the final film.

Ahead of the home release of Gareth Edwards’ massive sci-fi hit, Gary Whitta, who wrote an early version of the script, has revealed that series icon Darth Vader nearly appeared in a third scene.

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Warning: Major spoilers for ‘Rogue One’ follow.

In the ending of the film that was cut, heroes Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) make it off Scariff before it’s blown to kingdom come, rather than meet their poignant end as in the film’s final cut.

In this early version of the ending, Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) also survives, managing to shelter from the Death Star’s blast.

“It’s a bit of a reach,” Whitta admits to Entertainment Weekly, “which is why it isn’t in the finished film.

“He survived the blast and they pulled him up and brought him to the Star Destroyer to report to Vader. He’s all beat up, his cape’s all torn up and stuff, and he thinks he has survived.”

Inevitably, he’s sent to Vader, who “kills him for his failure” as Whitta describes. It was intended as Vader’s final scene, but was dropped when the ending was changed.

Vader’s actual final scene – the incredibly hallway slaughter of Rebel soldiers as they try to get the Death Star plans to safety – wasn’t written by Whitta.

“I had pictured early on Vader murdering all these Rebel soldiers but I never wrote it into the script,” Whitta says. “It was an idea that stuck around after I left and they ended up finding a cool way to use it. It’s actually my favorite thing in the film.”

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ is out on DVD and Blu-Ray on 10 April.