Disney’s Star Wars sequels have their fair share of detractors, but this needn’t have been the case. Indeed, dozens of awesome scenes were cut from the Star Wars sequel trilogy that could very well have won naysayers over.
With this in mind, we’ve sifted through every known iteration of the Star Wars sequels (excluding George Lucas’ sequel trilogy treatments) to round up the best material from the Lucasfilm editing room floor.
5. Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber Falls From Orbit
Star Wars: The Force Awakens kicks off the sequel trilogy with a Star Destroyer gliding through space — hardly a first for the franchise. But according to Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill, Episode VII nearly opened very differently.
“It was a severed hand holding a lightsaber, flying through space,” Hamill said of The Force Awakens‘ original first shot. “And when it hit the stratosphere, the flesh and the bone burned off. And they followed the lightsaber as it went into the ground… and I thought, ‘Well there’s great symmetry here because I’m in the first shot, and I’m in the last shot.'”
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Is the scene Hamill described a bit goofy? Absolutely. However, it’s bold and unlike any other Star Wars movie’s intro. The same goes for The Force Awakens’ other alternate opening — in which a Star Destroyer gets caught in Jakku’s orbit and crashes.
4. Rey’s Extended Force Vision (Including Luke vs. Vader)
Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) Force vision is one of the most memorable moments in The Force Awakens. Yet this disorienting montage nearly featured even wilder callbacks to Star Wars‘ past, including shots of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader’s duel in The Empire Strikes Back, with Luke played by Robert Boulter.
In the finished film, Rey still wanders the Cloud City corridor where Luke and Vader traded blows, though father and son are both absent. The extended version of this scene reportedly also cut another major flashback: the first meeting between future Kylo Ren, Ben Solo (Adam Driver), and Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis).
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3. Luke Skywalker Mourns Han Solo
The Last Jedi remains the most polarizing Star Wars sequel trilogy entry. Ironically, writer-director Rian Johnson arguably had a clearer vision for it than J.J. Abrams did for the flicks that bookend it. As such, The Last Jedi‘s cut scenes don’t materially alter its story — although at least one would’ve boosted the overall poignancy.
In the movie’s original edit, Luke takes a moment to mourn Han Solo’s (Harrison Ford) recent death. It’s not “awesome” in the same sense as the other entries on this list, but what it lacks in spectacle, it easily makes up for in sheer emotional wallop.
2. Kylo Ren Consults The Eye of Webbish Bog
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker gets off to a notoriously rushed start. However, this wasn’t always the plan. Instead, the third and final Star Wars sequel initially took more time setting up its story via an encounter between Kylo Ren and the Eye of Webbish Bog.
A creepy, spider-like oracle perched atop a submerged giant, the Eye of Webbish Bog is the one who points Kylo in the direction of resurrected Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Based on the available concept art, this scene would’ve been visually stunning, even if it did risk, well… bogging down momentum early on.
Still, a more deliberate opening would probably have better than the hurried first act we got, so the Eye of Webbish Bog scene should’ve made The Rise of Skywalker‘s final cut.
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1. Rey and Kylo Ren’s Climactic Showdown
We could’ve easily filled this list with scenes from Star Wars: Duel of the Fates (Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow’s abandoned screenplay for The Rise of Skywalker). From a Jedi Temple secret mission to General Hux’s (Domhnall Gleeson) lightsaber seppuku, the Duel of the Fates script contains some dynamite stuff.
But if we can only pick one unused Duel of the Fates scene, it has to be the final fight between Rey and Kylo. Not only is it an epic clash that connects all three Star Wars trilogies (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke, and Yoda all show up), but it also delivers a satisfying redemptive arc for Ren without undercutting his antagonist status.
