‘Rogue One’ Deleted Planet & Character Cameos Revealed

Rogue One A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story turned out pretty great for being the first standalone story that deviates from the episodic Skywalker Saga. But many fans have been wondering why many scenes from the trailers and TV spots were not featured in the finished product.

One of the most iconic shots from the Rogue One promotional material was this incredible image in which Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is confronted by a large TIE Fighter on the bridge featured during the film’s unbelievable climax.

Sadly, this shot was left on the cutting room floor. According to director Gareth Edwards, the shot was kept in the trailers despite the fact that it was apparent during post-production that it would not be featured in the film itself:

It was something the marketing team fell in love with. We knew it would not be in the film. It’s one of those things where all the trailers are put together way before the film comes out. It wasn’t a specific part of the story.

Among other things, EW revealed that a certain planet was originally set to make an appearance in the film. That planet was to be Dantooine, which was featured in an episode of the animated series, Star Wars Rebels. Edwards revealed the original intentions to have Dantooine in the film:

We did a few things to save money and one of them was they go to a Rebel base in the first half of the film, then go off on their adventure, and the second half of the film they return to a Rebel base. It used to be that the first half of the movie was not on Yavin it was Dantooine.

Also, although the filmmaking team hoped to have had more appearances from iconic characters from the original trilogy, those potential cameos were removed. According to screenwriter Gary Whitta, the team did not want to play into fan service too much with this film:

We did have some other characters but the reason why they’re not in the film is because any time we did something like, where I’m wearing the fanboy hat and not the professional writer’s hat, someone would come along and say, let’s not do that character again. We don’t have to be winking at the audience all the time.

The film has been in theaters since December and will be hitting Blu-Ray and DVD very soon so it’s safe to say that the fans have seen the film at this point.

Rogue One featured appearances from characters such as Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, C-3PO, R2-D2, Chopper, Darth Vader and Princess Leia. The fact that these characters were put into this film at all left hardcore Star Wars fans cheering in their seats (especially *that* Darth Vader sequence).

Adding too many already-established characters to the film would be overkill. Rogue One needed to have a focus on the new characters introduced, and thank the Force that they had their shine.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now available on Digital HD and will be available on Blu-Ray and DVD on April 4.

Source: EW

Noah Villaverde

Noah Villaverde

Cinema lover. Saxophone player. Coffee consumer. Chronic complainer. Oh, I also write. #TeamHeroic