10 Awesome Star Wars Ideas That Nearly Happened
From gritty massacres, to a live action Ventress, and many more epic nearly-Star Wars moments...
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00:00 For a whole host of reasons, these pieces of concept art or early draft ideas were ultimately
00:05 given a hard no in the end.
00:08 But that still won't stop this Padawan from gushing over the brilliant Star Wars plans
00:12 and suggestions that unfortunately never made it past the pitching stage.
00:16 I'm Gareth from What Culture Star Wars and here are 10 Awesome Star Wars Ideas That Nearly
00:22 Happened.
00:23 10.
00:24 Anakin Skywalker Really Embraces The Dark Side At The Jedi Temple
00:29 Anakin Skywalker's butchering of a room full of younglings within the Jedi Temple acted
00:34 as one of the darkest beats the entire Skywalker saga had produced.
00:38 However, according to Emperor Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid at Salt Lake City's Fanex
00:43 Convention in 2015, the originally fully shot scene was said to be much more gruesome, revealing
00:48 that a lot of young potential Jedi ended up on the cutting room floor.
00:52 And though the actor would admit cutting down the carnage was probably for the best in order
00:57 to avoid a harsher rating for Revenge of the Sith, he did recall a conversation with George
01:01 Lucas over the vivid slaughtering of the youngsters where the director explained, "That's what
01:06 he's like, this guy.
01:07 He's uncompromising.
01:09 People should know it."
01:10 Though it was clearly a wise move steering clear of too graphic a massacre scene for
01:15 the sake of a PG-13 rating, seeing an uncompromising Anakin display just how far he'd fallen in
01:20 such a disturbing manner would have likely made for a much more chilling closing stretch
01:24 to the prequels, and his long-awaited transformation into Darth Vader.
01:30 9.
01:31 Chewbacca is Interrogated by Kylo Ren While many of the concepts and plans occupying
01:36 this list unfortunately never made it past the discussion over a coffee stage, Kylo Ren's
01:41 intense interrogation of everyone's favourite Wookiee was actually fully shot for use in
01:45 a live-action feature.
01:47 However, acting as yet another Skywalker saga editing casualty, Ren's torturing of Chewbacca
01:52 in what would eventually become The Rise of Skywalker was likely deemed too dark for the
01:56 PG-13 ninth entry, according to Chewie actor Juno Suotamo.
02:01 As the towering thespian would note in his book Raw, My Life as a Wookiee, scene partner
02:06 Adam Driver went all in on the scene, psyching himself up to be a real monster through it
02:11 all.
02:12 Ultimately, the safer decision to simply have Chewie be captured before eventually being
02:15 rescued by Finn and Poe was opted for instead, depriving fans of a beat that, while admittedly
02:20 unsettling, could have added some much-needed edge to an otherwise bland Greatest Hits compilation.
02:26 8.
02:27 Darth Maul is a big part of the Kenobi series
02:30 The impending arrival of the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series was always destined to set
02:35 the internet ablaze.
02:36 And while the hype is very much real when it pertains to the episodic story which is
02:40 set to involve the return of Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker and Kenobi watching
02:46 over young Luke some ten years on from Revenge of the Sith, the announcement of a certain
02:50 character being stripped from the show has left more than a few pondering over what could
02:54 have been, even before the series has dropped.
02:57 As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Darth Maul actor Ray Park was said to have been
03:01 in the midst of preparing for a comeback in the show as the red-faced antagonist.
03:06 However, his scenes were said to have been binned off during a creative overhaul that
03:09 saw Vader being pumped into the action instead.
03:13 Seeing Vader once again clash with his old mentor will undoubtedly make for can't miss
03:17 TV, but few would have complained about the prospect of finally hearing "Kenobi!"
03:22 bellow from the former Sith Lord on the live-action stage, either.
03:27 7.
03:28 Han Solo's Dramatic Death Goes Down Much Earlier
03:31 As far as epic fatalities in the galaxy far, far away go, Han Solo's dramatic death in
03:36 The Force Awakens definitely ticked all the boxes necessary to leave audiences with their
03:40 jaws banging off the floor.
03:42 Harrison Ford finally had the gravitas-imbuing conclusion he'd been angling for since
03:47 1983.
03:48 In all honesty, though, perhaps it wouldn't have been the worst idea in the world to have
03:51 given the grisly actor his wish a few decades earlier in the midst of Return of the Jedi.
03:56 Had Solo sacrificed himself for a high ideal - as Ford put it when discussing the proposed
04:01 death on Conan - that third original trilogy entry would have undoubtedly come equipped
04:05 with much more dramatic weight and stakes, making for a far more meaningful and perhaps
04:10 even bittersweet victory over the Empire in the end.
04:13 George Lucas and the gang clearly didn't see much value in shooting down this smuggler-turned-general
04:17 way back when, however, and not even a blade through the chest some three decades on could
04:22 keep Solo off our screens when all was said and done.
04:25 Just let the man rest.
04:27 6.
04:28 The Wookiees vs. The Empire
04:30 Chewbacca and his fellow Wookiees doing their bit in fighting off the Separatists made for
04:34 some of the most explosive and eye-catching set pieces the prequels had to offer.
04:39 This was far from an idea just thrown into the mix for the sake of it, however.
04:42 Because George Lucas had actually been mulling over an all-out skirmish involving Chewie
04:46 species since the days of drafting up the story for A New Hope.
04:50 After deciding to push back the primitive Wookiee vs. Empire war to the last film in
04:54 his original trilogy, though, it soon became clear that the furry species wouldn't have
04:58 fit the proposed battle due to being much more technologically savvy than initially
05:02 imagined.
05:03 This, and the fact that creating a battle involving hundreds of Wookiees was seen as too expensive
05:07 a choice at the time, led to the Ewoks being swapped in for Return of the Jedi's climax.
05:12 But while it would have understandably come at quite a cost, there's no questioning
05:15 the fact that a raging Wookiee war with the cheaply kitted out Stormtroopers would have
05:19 made for a much more compelling battle for the galaxy.
05:23 5.
05:24 Padme wanted to assassinate Anakin Very few thespians came out of the prequel
05:29 series smelling like roses.
05:31 Through no fault of their own, I might add.
05:33 All of the acting chops in the world could not save some of the most talented actors
05:36 in the galaxy from dialogue and exchanges, designed by an otherwise genius creator who
05:41 couldn't seem to grasp how actual humans conversed.
05:44 But in the case of Padme Amidala performer Natalie Portman, the actor was very nearly
05:48 gifted a development that would have at least resembled a compelling and realistic act.
05:52 According to artist Ian McHague's concept art for Revenge of the Sith, Padme would have
05:56 been driven to pulling a knife on her beloved when confronting him on Mustafar.
06:01 Despite this, Padme still wouldn't have been able to do the necessary deed, though,
06:04 with McHague noting she "loves him too much to stop him, even when he's become the monster."
06:09 What could have been a much-needed, emotionally complex layer to Revenge of the Sith's last
06:13 act was instead swapped out in favour of the former Queen of Naboo begging Anakin to come
06:18 back to the light before losing her will to live post-childbirth.
06:21 4.
06:22 Revenge of the Sith's Lost Monsters Keeping with Revenge of the Sith's lost Mustafar
06:28 moments now, and to a showdown for the ages that could have likely been ramped up a few
06:32 more dramatic notches.
06:34 Brought into being by artist Sang Joon Lee, a red-light saber-wielding Anakin Skywalker
06:38 could be seen duking it out with old master-turned-enemy Obi-Wan Kenobi amidst the fiery terrain.
06:44 Only, instead of merely having the lava and crumbling mining facility to worry about,
06:48 they would have been joined by a monumental alien-scorpion-lizard hybrid.
06:52 You could understandably debate that cutting this grand beast from the dynamic duel led
06:56 to a much more personal and appropriately emotional clash between the leading characters.
07:01 But this Mustafar monster's inclusion in the swordfight would have likely been a welcome
07:04 addition of peril, without taking too much away from the Vader-Kenobi back and forth.
07:10 3.
07:11 Luke's Hand Kickstarts the Sequels One of the major plot holes coming out of
07:15 J.J. Abrams' reviving of the Skywalker saga with The Force Awakens centered around exactly
07:20 how the wise pirate queen Maz Kanata got her hands on the most sacred lightsaber in the
07:24 galaxy.
07:25 Instead of spending a little extra screen time on what the blade had been up to in the
07:29 time between being attached to a severed Luke Skywalker's hand in The Empire Strikes Back,
07:34 Abrams simply moved on with the action with his fingers in his ears.
07:36 Originally, however, the film's since-deleted opening sequence would have actually provided
07:40 fans with the missing pieces of the weapon's journey, with Skywalker's chopped mitt floating
07:45 through space before burning to a crisp upon entering the stratosphere of an unnamed planet,
07:51 according to a Mark Hamill fact check on Twitter.
07:53 It may have made for a bit of a grisly opening shot after a decade away from the big-screen
07:57 Star Wars live-action, but it would have at least explained in a rather graphic way how
08:01 Kanata potentially obtained the blue saber.
08:04 2.
08:06 Luke Skywalker Becomes The Next Darth Vader
08:09 Flirting with the murkier side of the Force in his later appearances as a grizzled, bitter
08:13 Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, you may be surprised to discover that this wasn't the
08:17 first time a pitch had been made for the one-time farm boy to take a walk on the more questionable
08:22 side of morality.
08:24 After dispatching the Emperor to save his boy, the few beats between Darth Vader and
08:28 his son as the former Anakin Skywalker slowly passed on made for one of Return of the Jedi's
08:33 most moving exchanges.
08:34 However, George Lucas once actually jokingly pitched this sequence having a very different
08:40 conclusion.
08:41 As he told his co-writer Lawrence Kasdan when discussing the scene, Luke "takes his mask
08:45 off, the mask is the very last thing, and then Luke puts it on and says, 'Now I am
08:49 Vader, surprise!
08:51 The ultimate twist!
08:52 Now I will go and kill the Rebel fleet and I will rule the universe!'"
08:55 Regleaffully, Kasdan actually responded by proclaiming "That's what I think should
08:59 happen!" before Lucas quickly backed off and noted how the film was for kids.
09:04 1.
09:05 Count Dooku and Darth Maul were nearly women The fact fans were never truly treated to
09:09 the sight of a Sarge Ventress committed to live action still sits as a bitter pill to
09:14 swallow for many.
09:15 And it wasn't as though the concept of a female Sith was outside the realms of possibility
09:19 either.
09:20 With both Count Dooku and Darth Maul once being pitched as being introduced as women
09:23 in their respective emergencies onto the Skywalker saga scene.
09:27 Once again being forged in the mind of gifted artist Ian McHague, the designer originally
09:31 conceived Maul as a pale, redlock-sporting menace of a woman with metal teeth.
09:36 Too frightened by the design himself, Lucas was said to have passed up on the tin-teeth
09:40 villainess, asking McHague to design his second worst nightmare instead.
09:45 In the case of Dooku, his female alternative very much formed the basis of what would eventually
09:49 become Ventress, with Countess Dooku being shelved the minute Christopher Lee became
09:53 available.
09:54 What a damn shame.
09:55 And that's our collection of awesome Star Wars moments that nearly happened.
10:00 Any we missed?
10:01 Then let us know all about them in the comment section right down below and do not forget
10:05 to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:08 Also if you like this kind of thing then head on over to whatculture.com and find some more
10:11 awesome articles just like the one this video is based on.
10:14 I've been Gareth from What Culture Star Wars, thank you as always for clicking on
10:17 this video today.
10:18 May the force be with you, and I will see you very, very soon.
10:21 Bye!
10:22 Bye!
10:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]