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 given a hard no in the end.
00:07But that still won't stop this Padawan from gushing over the brilliant Star Wars plans and suggestions that unfortunately never made it past the pitching stage.
00:16I'm Gareth from WhatCultureStarWars and here are 10 awesome Star Wars ideas that nearly happened.
00:2310. Anakin Skywalker Really Embraces the Dark Side at the Jedi Temple
00:28Anakin Skywalker's butchering of a room full of younglings within the Jedi Temple acted as 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 FanX convention in 2015,
00:44the originally fully shot scene was said to be much more gruesome, revealing that 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 to avoid a harsher rating for Revenge of the Sith,
00:59he did recall a conversation with George 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 the sake of a PG-13 rating,
01:16seeing an uncompromising Anakin displayed just how far he'd fallen in such a disturbing manner
01:21would have likely made for a much more chilling closing stretch to the prequels
01:25and his long-awaited transformation into Darth Vader.
01:309. Chewbacca Is Interrogated By Kylo Ren
01:33While many of the concepts and plans occupying this list unfortunately never made it past the discussion over a coffee stage,
01:40Kylo Ren's intense interrogation of everyone's favourite Wookiee was actually fully shot for use in a live-action feature.
01:47However, acting as yet another Skywalker saga editing casualty,
01:51Ren's torturing of Chewbacca in what would eventually become The Rise of Skywalker
01:54was likely deemed too dark for the 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,
02:05scene partner Adam Driver went all in on the scene,
02:08psyching himself up to be a real monster through it all.
02:11Ultimately, the safer decision to simply have Chewie be captured
02:14before eventually being rescued by Finn and Poe was opted for instead,
02:18depriving fans of a beat that, while admittedly unsettling,
02:21could have added some much-needed edge to an otherwise bland Greatest Hits compilation.
02:268. Darth Maul Is A Big Part Of The Kenobi Series
02:30The impending arrival of the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series
02:34was always destined to set the internet ablaze.
02:36And while the hype is very much real when it pertains to the episodic story
02:40which is set to involve the return of Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader-slash-Anakin Skywalker
02:44and Kenobi watching over young Luke some ten years on from Revenge of the Sith,
02:49the announcement of a certain character being stripped from the show
02:52has left more than a few pondering over what could have been,
02:55even before the series has dropped.
02:57As reported by The Hollywood Reporter,
02:59Darth Maul actor Ray Park was said to have been in the midst of preparing
03:02for 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
03:09that saw Vader being pumped into the action instead.
03:12Seeing Vader once again clash with his old mentor
03:15will undoubtedly make for can't-miss TV,
03:17but few would have complained about the prospect of finally hearing
03:20bellowed from the former Sith Lord on the live-action stage either.
03:277. Han Solo's Dramatic Death Goes Down Much Earlier
03:30As far as epic fatalities in the galaxy far, far away go,
03:35Han Solo's dramatic death in The Force Awakens
03:37definitely ticked all the boxes necessary to leave audiences
03:40with their jaws banging off the floor.
03:42Harrison Ford finally had the gravitas imbuing conclusion
03:45he'd been angling for since 1983.
03:47In all honesty, though, perhaps it wouldn't have been the worst idea in the world
03:51to have given the grisly actor his wish a few decades earlier
03:54in the midst of Return of the Jedi.
03:56Had Solo sacrificed himself for a high ideal,
03:59as Ford put it when discussing the proposed death on Conan,
04:02that third original trilogy entry would have undoubtedly come equipped
04:05with much more dramatic weight and stakes,
04:07making for a far more meaningful and perhaps even bittersweet victory
04:11over the Empire in the end.
04:13George Lucas and the gang clearly didn't see much value
04:15in shooting down this smuggler-turned-general way back when, however.
04:19And not even a blade through the chest some three decades on
04:21could keep Solo off our screens when all was said and done.
04:25Just let the man rest.
04:286. The Wookiees vs. The Empire
04:30Chewbacca and his fellow Wookiees doing their bit
04:32in fighting off the Separatists
04:34made for some of the most explosive and eye-catching set pieces
04:37the prequels had to offer.
04:38This was far from an idea just thrown into the mix
04:41for the sake of it, however, as George Lucas had actually been mulling over
04:44an all-out skirmish involving Chewie's species
04:47since the days of drafting up the story for a new hope.
04:50After deciding to push back the primitive Wookiee vs. Empire war
04:53to the last film in his original trilogy, though,
04:56it soon became clear that the furry species wouldn't have fit the proposed battle
04:59due to being much more technologically savvy than initially imagined.
05:03This and the fact that creating a battle involving hundreds of Wookiees
05:06was seen as too expensive a choice at the time
05:08led to the Ewoks being swapped in for Return of the Jedi's climax.
05:12Yet while it would have understandably come at quite a cost,
05:15there's no questioning the fact that a raging Wookiee war
05:17with the cheaply kitted-out Stormtroopers
05:19would have made for a much more compelling battle for the galaxy.
05:235. Padme Wanted to Assassinate Anakin
05:26Very few thespians came out of the prequel series smelling like roses,
05:30through no fault of their own, I might add.
05:33All of the acting chops in the world could not save
05:35some of the most talented actors in the galaxy from dialogue and exchanges,
05:39designed by an otherwise genius creator
05:41who couldn't seem to grasp how actual humans conversed.
05:44But in the case of Padme Amidala performer Natalie Portman,
05:47the actor was very nearly gifted a development
05:49that would have at least resembled a compelling and realistic act.
05:52According to artist Ian McKaig's concept art for Revenge of the Sith,
05:56Padme would have been driven to pulling a knife on her beloved
05:58when confronting him on Mustafar.
06:00Despite 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,
06:07even when he's become the monster.
06:09What could have been a much-needed emotionally complex layer
06:12to Revenge of the Sith's last act
06:13was instead swapped out in favor of the former Queen of Naboo
06:16begging Anakin to come back to the light
06:18before losing her will to live post-childbirth.
06:214. Revenge of the Sith's Lost Monsters
06:25Keeping with Revenge of the Sith's Lost Mustafar moments now,
06:29and to a showdown for the ages that could have likely been ramped up
06:32a few more dramatic notches.
06:34Brought into being by artist Sang Joon Lee,
06:36a red lightsaber-wielding Anakin Skywalker could be seen
06:39duking it out with old master-turned-enemy Obi-Wan Kenobi
06:42amidst the fiery terrain.
06:44Only, instead of merely having the lava
06:46and 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
06:55from the dynamic duel led to a much more personal
06:57and appropriately emotional clash between the leading characters.
07:01But this Mustafar monster's inclusion in the sword fight
07:03would have likely been a welcome addition of peril,
07:06without taking too much away from the Vader Kenobi back and forth.
07:103. Luke's Hand Kickstarts the Sequels
07:13One of the major plot holes coming out of J.J. Abrams' reviving
07:16of the Skywalker saga with The Force Awakens,
07:19centered around exactly how the wise pirate queen,
07:21Maz Kanata, got her hands on the most sacred lightsaber in the galaxy.
07:25Instead of spending a little extra screen time
07:27on what the Blade had been up to
07:29in the time between being attached to a severed Luke Skywalker's hand
07:32in The Empire Strikes Back,
07:33Abrams simply moved on with the action with his fingers in his ears.
07:36Originally, however, the film's since-deleted opening sequence
07:39would have actually provided fans with the missing pieces of the weapon's journey,
07:43with Skywalker's chopped mitt floating through space
07:46before burning to a crisp upon entering the stratosphere of an unnamed planet.
07:50According to a Mark Hamill fact-check on Twitter,
07:52it may have made for a bit of a grisly opening shot
07:55after a decade away from the big-screen Star Wars live-action,
07:58but it would have at least explained in a rather graphic way
08:01how Kanata potentially obtained the blue saber.
08:052. Luke Skywalker Becomes the Next Darth Vader
08:08Flirting with the murkier side of the Force in his later appearances
08:12as a grizzled, bitter Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi,
08:15you may be surprised to discover that this wasn't the first time a picture been made
08:19for the one-time farm boy to take a walk on the more questionable side of morality.
08:23After dispatching the Emperor to save his boy,
08:26the few beats between Darth Vader and his son as the former Anakin Skywalker slowly passed on,
08:31made for one of Return of the Jedi's most moving exchanges.
08:34However, George Lucas once actually jokingly pitched this sequence having a very different conclusion.
08:40As he told his co-writer, Lawrence Kasdan, when discussing the scene,
08:44Luke takes his mask off, the mask is the very last thing,
08:47and then Luke puts it on and says,
08:49Now I am Vader, surprise!
08:51The ultimate twist!
08:52Now I will go and kill the rebel fleet and I will rule the universe.
08:55Gleefully, Kasdan actually responded by proclaiming,
08:58That's what I think should happen!
08:59Before Lucas quickly backed off and noted how the film was for kids.
09:041. Count Dooku and Darth Maul Were Nearly Women
09:07The fact fans were never truly treated to the sight of Asajj Ventress committed to live action
09:12still sits as a bitter pill to swallow for many.
09:15And it wasn't as though the concept of a female Sith was outside the realms of possibility either,
09:19with 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 McKaig,
09:31the designer originally conceived Maul as a pale, redlock-sporting menace of a woman with metal teeth.
09:36Too frightened by the design himself,
09:38Lucas was said to have passed up on the tin-teeth villainous,
09:41asking McKaig 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, with Countess Dooku being shelved the minute Christopher Lee became available.
09:54What a damn shame.
09:55And that's our collection of awesome Star Wars moments that nearly happened.
10:00Any we missed?
10:01Then let us know all about them in the comment section right down below,
10:04and do not forget to like, share, and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:07Also, if you like this kind of thing, then head on over to whatculture.com
10:10and find some more awesome articles just like the one this video is based on.
10:14I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars.
10:16Thank you as always for clicking on this video today.
10:18May the Force be with you, and I will see you very, very soon.
10:21Bye-bye!