“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” hits digital on Friday, and as per usual, Disney is going hard on the marketing, with EW spending all week dishing out choice intel about the making of the movie and the versions we didn’t see (such as the “happy ending” iteration). As we know now, the development process saw all kinds of ideas tossed around, with many of them jettisoned as the scripts developed. So, it’s not too surprising that Darth Vader’s appearance had a deadlier angle at one time.
In the finished film, the iconic villain goes on rampage, killing a bunch of Rebel soldiers, but fails to get to Princess Leia in time as she makes off with the Death Star plans. Ultimately, this marks the final failure of Ben Mendelsohn‘s Imperial commander Krennic, who winds up dying anyway. However, it was initially planned that somehow, Krennic would survive Scarif being space laser-blasted, but meet his demise on the wrong end of Darth Vader’s lightsaber. Here’s how Entertainment Weekly describe it:
Picture this: the Death Star shows up on the horizon of Scarif and does the same partial blast that we see in the finished movie — scorching the surface of the tropical world and demolishing the Rebel uprising along with the Empire’s weapons facility.
Back in this version of the story, Jyn Erso and the character we came to know as Cassian Andor escaped with both the data tapes and their lives. The villain of the story, Director Krennic also survived the battle, although barely.
Instead of lying wounded on a transmission platform while the green beam of the Death Star literally incinerates him on its trajectory into the planet, Krennic found shelter from the blast. In what sounds like a type of epilogue to the story, we would have seen his rescue by Imperial forces.
Krennic thinks he has endured. He thinks he has served valiantly for the Emperor. He thinks he has done everything right, everything within his power … right up until an unseen force squeezes off the air in his throat.
Screenwriter Gary Whitta admits Krennic managing to stay alive was a “reach,” which is why they scrapped the idea, but it would’ve closed the loop on Darth Vader force-choking him earlier in the film.
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” hits digital on Friday, and physical formats on April 4th.