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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00:00For a whole host of reasons, these pieces of concept art or early draft ideas were ultimately
00:05given a hard no in the end.
00:08But that still won't stop this Padawan from gushing over the brilliant Star Wars plans
00:12and suggestions that unfortunately never made it past the pitching stage.
00:16I'm Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars and here are 10 Awesome Star Wars Ideas That Nearly
00:22Happened.
00:2310.
00:24Anakin Skywalker Really Embraces the Dark Side at the Jedi Temple
00:29Anakin Skywalker's butchering of a room full of younglings within the Jedi Temple acted
00:34as one of the darkest beats the entire Skywalker saga had produced.
00:38However, according to Emperor Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid at Salt Lake City's Fanex
00:43Convention in 2015, the originally fully shot scene was said to be much more gruesome, revealing
00:48that a lot of young potential Jedi ended up on the cutting room floor.
00:52And though the actor would admit cutting down the carnage was probably for the best in order
00:57to avoid a harsher rating for Revenge of the Sith, he did recall a conversation with
01:01George Lucas over the vivid slaughtering of the youngsters where the director explained,
01:05that's what he's like, this guy, he's uncompromising, people should know it.
01:10Though it was clearly a wise move steering clear of too graphic a massacre scene for
01:15the sake of a PG-13 rating, seeing an uncompromising Anakin display just how far he'd fallen in
01:20such a disturbing manner would have likely made for a much more chilling closing stretch
01:25to the prequels, and his long-awaited transformation into Darth Vader.
01:309.
01:31CHEWBACCA IS INTERROGATED BY KYLO REN While many of the concepts and plans occupying
01:36this list unfortunately never made it past a discussion over a coffee stage, Kylo Ren's
01:41intense interrogation of everyone's favourite Wookiee was actually fully shot for use in
01:45a live-action feature.
01:47However, acting as yet another Skywalker saga editing casualty, Ren's torturing of Chewbacca
01:52in what would eventually become The Rise of Skywalker was likely deemed too dark for
01:56the PG-13 ninth entry, according to Chewie actor Juna Suotamo.
02:01As the towering thespian would note in his book Raw, My Life as a Wookiee, scene partner
02:06Adam Driver went all in on the scene, psyching himself up to be a real monster through it
02:11all.
02:12Ultimately, the safer decision to simply have Chewie be captured before eventually being
02:15rescued by Finn and Poe was opted for instead, depriving fans of a beat that, while admittedly
02:20unsettling, could have added some much-needed edge to an otherwise bland Greatest Hits compilation.
02:268.
02:27Darth Maul is a big part of the Kenobi series
02:30The impending arrival of the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series was always destined to
02:35set the internet ablaze.
02:36And while the hype is very much real when it pertains to the episodic story which is
02:40set to involve the return of Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader slash Anakin Skywalker, and Kenobi
02:45watching over young Luke some ten years on from Revenge of the Sith, the announcement
02:49of a certain character being stripped from the show has left more than a few pondering
02:54over what could have been, even before the series has dropped.
02:57As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Darth Maul actor Ray Park was said to have been
03:01in the midst of preparing for a comeback in the show as the red-faced antagonist.
03:06However, his scenes were said to have been binned off during a creative overhaul that
03:09saw Vader being pumped into the action instead.
03:13Seeing Vader once again clash with his old mentor will undoubtedly make for can't miss
03:17TV, but few would have complained about the prospect of finally hearing KENOBI bellow
03:22from the former Sith Lord on the live-action stage, either.
03:277.
03:28Han Solo's Dramatic Death Goes Down Much Earlier
03:31As far as epic fatalities in the galaxy far, far away go, Han Solo's dramatic death in
03:36The Force Awakens definitely ticked all the boxes necessary to leave audiences with their
03:40jaws banging off the floor.
03:42Harrison Ford finally had the gravitas-imbuing conclusion he'd been angling for since
03:471983.
03:48In all honesty, though, perhaps it wouldn't have been the worst idea in the world to have
03:51given the grisly actor his wish a few decades earlier in the midst of Return of the Jedi.
03:56Had Solo sacrificed himself for a high ideal, as Ford put it when discussing the proposed
04:01death on Conan, that third original trilogy entry would have undoubtedly come equipped
04:05with much more dramatic weight and stakes, making for a far more meaningful and perhaps
04:10even bittersweet victory over the Empire in the end.
04:13George Lucas and the gang clearly didn't see much value in shooting down this smuggler-turned-general
04:17way back when, however, and not even a blade through the chest some three decades on could
04:22keep Solo off our screens when all was said and done.
04:25Just let the man rest.
04:276.
04:28The Wookiees vs. The Empire
04:30Chewbacca and his fellow Wookiees doing their bit in fighting off the Separatists made for
04:34some of the most explosive and eye-catching set pieces the prequels had to offer.
04:39This was far from an idea just thrown into the mix for the sake of it, however, as George
04:44Lucas had actually been mulling over an all-out skirmish involving chewy species since the
04:47days of drafting up the story for A New Hope.
04:50After deciding to push back the primitive Wookiee vs. Empire war to the last film in
04:54his original trilogy, though, it soon became clear that the furry species wouldn't have
04:58fit the proposed battle due to being much more technologically savvy than initially
05:02imagined.
05:03This, and the fact that creating a battle involving hundreds of Wookiees was seen as
05:07too expensive a choice at the time, led to the Ewoks being swapped in for Return of the
05:11Jedi's climax.
05:12Yet, while it would have understandably come at quite a cost, there's no questioning
05:15the fact that a raging Wookiee war with the cheaply kitted out Stormtroopers would have
05:19made for a much more compelling battle for the galaxy.
05:235.
05:24Padme Wanted to Assassinate Anakin
05:26Very few thespians came out of the prequel series smelling like roses – through no
05:31fault of their own, I might add.
05:33All of the acting chops in the world could not save some of the most talented actors
05:36in the galaxy from dialogue and exchanges designed by an otherwise genius creator who
05:41couldn't seem to grasp how actual humans conversed.
05:44But in the case of Padme Amidal, a performer, Natalie Portman, the actor was very nearly
05:48gifted a development that would have at least resembled a compelling and realistic act.
05:52According to artist Ian McKaig's concept art for Revenge of the Sith, Padme would have
05:56been driven to pulling a knife on her beloved when confronting him on Mustafar.
06:01Despite this, Padme still wouldn't have been able to do the necessary deed, though,
06:04with McKaig noting she loves him too much to stop him, even when he's become the monster.
06:09What could have been a much-needed, emotionally complex layer to Revenge of the Sith's last
06:13act, was instead swapped out in favour of the former Queen of Naboo begging Anakin to
06:17come back to the light, before losing her will to live post-childbirth.
06:214.
06:22Revenge of the Sith's Lost Monsters
06:26Keeping with Revenge of the Sith's lost Mustafar moments now, and to a showdown for
06:30the ages that could have likely been ramped up a few more dramatic notches.
06:34Brought into being by artist Sang Joon Lee, a red lightsaber-wielding Anakin Skywalker
06:38could be seen duking it out with old master-turned-enemy Obi-Wan Kenobi amidst the fiery terrain.
06:44Only, instead of merely having the lava and crumbling mining facility to worry about,
06:48they would have been joined by a monumental alien-scorpion-lizard hybrid.
06:52You could understandably debate that cutting this grand beast from the dynamic duel led
06:56to a much more personal and appropriately emotional clash between the leading characters.
07:01But this Mustafar monster's inclusion in the sword fight would have likely been a welcome
07:04addition of peril, without taking too much away from the Vader-Kenobi back and forth.
07:103.
07:11Luke's Hand Kickstarts the Sequels
07:13One of the major plot holes coming out of J.J. Abrams' reviving of the Skywalker saga
07:17with The Force Awakens centered around exactly how the wise pirate queen Maz Kanata got her
07:22hands on the most sacred lightsaber in the galaxy.
07:25Instead of spending a little extra screen time on what the blade had been up to in the
07:29time between being attached to a severed Luke Skywalker's hand in The Empire Strikes Back,
07:34Abrams simply moved on with the action with his fingers in his ears.
07:36Originally, however, the film's since-deleted opening sequence would have actually provided
07:40fans with the missing pieces of the weapon's journey, with Skywalker's chopped mitt floating
07:45through space before burning to a crisp upon entering the stratosphere of an unnamed planet,
07:50according to a Mark Hamill fact check on Twitter.
07:53It may have made for a bit of a grisly opening shot after a decade away from the big-screen
07:57Star Wars live-action, but it would have at least explained in a rather graphic way how
08:01Kanata potentially obtained the blue saber.
08:052.
08:06Luke Skywalker Becomes The Next Darth Vader
08:09Flirting with the murkier side of the Force in his later appearances as a grizzled, bitter
08:13Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, you may be surprised to discover that this wasn't the
08:17first time a pitch had been made for the one-time farm boy to take a walk on the more questionable
08:22side of morality.
08:24After dispatching the Emperor to save his boy, the few beats between Darth Vader and
08:28his son as the former Anakin Skywalker slowly passed on, made for one of Return of the Jedi's
08:33most moving exchanges.
08:34However, George Lucas once actually jokingly pitched this sequence having a very different
08:40conclusion.
08:41As he told his co-writer Lawrence Kasdan when discussing the scene, Luke takes his mask
08:45off, the mask is the very last thing, and then Luke puts it on and says, now I am Vader,
08:50surprise!
08:51The ultimate twist!
08:52Now I will go and kill the Rebel fleet and I will rule the universe.
08:55And gleefully, Kasdan actually responded by proclaiming, that's what I think should
08:59happen!
09:00Before Lucas quickly backed off and noted how the film was for kids.
09:041.
09:05Count Dooku and Darth Maul Were Nearly Women The fact fans were never truly treated to
09:09the sight of a Sarge Ventress committed to live action still sits as a bitter pill to
09:14swallow for many.
09:15And it wasn't as though the concept of a female Sith was outside the realms of possibility
09:19either.
09:20With both Count Dooku and Darth Maul once being pitched as being introduced as women
09:23in their respective emergencies onto the Skywalker saga scene.
09:27Once again being forged in the mind of gifted artist Ian McCaig, the designer originally
09:32conceived Maul as a pale, redlock-sporting menace of a woman with metal teeth.
09:36Too frightened by the design himself, Lucas was said to have passed up on the tin-teeth
09:40villainess, asking McCaig to design his second worst nightmare instead.
09:45In the case of Dooku, his female alternative very much formed the basis of what would eventually
09:49become Ventress.
09:50With Countess Dooku being shelved the minute Christopher Lee became available.
09:55What a damn shame.
09:56And that's our collection of awesome Star Wars moments that nearly happened.
10:01Any we missed?
10:02Then let us know all about them in the comment section right down below and do not forget
10:05to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:08Also if you like this kind of thing then head on over to whatculture.com and find some more
10:11awesome articles just like the one this video is based on.
10:14I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars, thank you as always for clicking on this video
10:18today.
10:19May the force be with you, and I will see you very, very soon.
10:22Bye!
10:23Bye!