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, sake of a PG-13 rating,
00:46seeing an uncompromising Anakin displayed just how far he'd fallen in such a disturbing manner would have likely made for a much more chilling closing stretch to the prequels,
00:55and his long-awaited transformation into Darth Vader.
01:009. Chewbacca Is Interrogated By Kylo Ren
01:03While many of the concepts and plans occupying this list unfortunately never made it past the discussion over a coffee stage,
01:10Kylo Ren's intense interrogation of everyone's favorite Wookiee was actually fully shot for use in a live-action feature.
01:16However, acting as yet another Skywalker saga editing casualty,
01:21Ren's torturing of Chewbacca in what would eventually become The Rise of Skywalker was likely deemed too dark for the PG-13 ninth entry,
01:28according to Chewie actor Juna Suotamo.
01:31As the towering thespian would note in his book Raw My Life as a Wookiee,
01:35scene partner Adam Driver went all in on the scene, psyching himself up to be a real monster through it all.
01:41Ultimately, the safer decision to simply have Chewie be captured before eventually being rescued by Finn and Poe was opted for instead,
01:48depriving fans of a beat that, while admittedly unsettling,
01:51could have added some much-needed edge to an otherwise bland Greatest Hits compilation.
01:568. Darth Maul Is A Big Part Of The Kenobi Series
02:00The impending arrival of the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series was always destined to set the internet ablaze,
02:06and while the hype is very much real when it pertains to the episodic story which is set to involve the return of Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader-slash-Anakin Skywalker,
02:15and Kenobi watching over young Luke some ten years on from Revenge of the Sith,
02:19the announcement of a certain character being stripped from the show has left more than a few pondering over what could have been,
02:25even before the series has dropped.
02:27As reported by The Hollywood Reporter,
02:29Darth Maul actor Ray Park was said to have been in the midst of preparing for a comeback in the show as the red-faced antagonist.
02:36However, his scenes were said to have been binned off during a creative overhaul that saw Vader being pumped into the action instead.
02:42Seeing Vader once again clash with his old mentor will undoubtedly make for can't-miss TV,
02:47but few would have complained about the prospect of finally hearing
02:50KENOBI
02:51bellow from the former Sith Lord on the live-action stage either.
02:577. Han Solo's Dramatic Death Goes Down Much Earlier
03:00As far as epic fatalities in the galaxy far, far away go,
03:05Han Solo's dramatic death in The Force Awakens definitely ticked all the boxes necessary to leave audiences with their jaws banging off the floor.
03:12Harrison Ford finally had the gravitas imbuing conclusion he'd been angling for since 1983.
03:18In all honesty, though, perhaps it wouldn't have been the worst idea in the world to have given the grisly actor his wish a few decades earlier in the midst of Return of the Jedi.
03:25Had Solo sacrificed himself for a high ideal, as Ford put it when discussing the proposed death on Conan,
03:32that third original trilogy entry would have undoubtedly come equipped with much more dramatic weight and stakes,
03:37making for a far more meaningful and perhaps even bittersweet victory over the Empire in the end.
03:43George Lucas and the gang clearly didn't see much value in shooting down this smuggler-turned-general way back when, however,
03:48and not even a blade through the chest some three decades on could keep Solo off our screens when all was said and done.
03:55Just let the man rest.
03:586. The Wookiees vs. The Empire
04:00Chewbacca and his fellow Wookiees doing their bit in fighting off the Separatists
04:04made for some of the most explosive and eye-catching set pieces the prequels had to offer.
04:08This was far from an idea just thrown into the mix for the sake of it, however,
04:12as George Lucas had actually been mulling over an all-out skirmish involving Chewie's species since the days of drafting up the story for A New Hope.
04:20After deciding to push back the primitive Wookiee vs. Empire War to the last film in his original trilogy, though,
04:26it soon became clear that the furry species wouldn't have fit the proposed battle due to being much more technologically savvy than initially imagined.
04:33This, and the fact that creating a battle involving hundreds of Wookiees was seen as too expensive a choice at the time,
04:38led to the Ewoks being swapped in for Return of the Jedi's climax.
04:42Yet while it would have understandably come at quite a cost,
04:45there's no questioning the fact that a raging Wookiee war with the cheaply kitted-out stormtroopers
04:49would have made for a much more compelling battle for the galaxy.
04:535. Padme Wanted to Assassinate Anakin
04:56Very few thespians came out of the prequel series smelling like roses,
05:00through no fault of their own, I might add.
05:03All of the acting chops in the world could not save some of the most talented actors in the galaxy from dialogue and exchanges,
05:09designed by an otherwise genius creator who couldn't seem to grasp how actual humans conversed.
05:14But in the case of Padme Amidala performer Natalie Portman,
05:17the actor was very nearly gifted a development that would have at least resembled a compelling and realistic act.
05:22According to artist Ian McKaig's concept art for Revenge of the Sith,
05:26Padme would have been driven to pulling a knife on her beloved when confronting him on Mustafar.
05:30Despite this, Padme still wouldn't have been able to do the necessary deed though,
05:34with McKaig noting she loves him too much to stop him, even when he's become the monster.
05:39What could have been a much-needed emotionally complex layer to Revenge of the Sith's last act,
05:44was instead swapped out in favor of the former Queen of Naboo begging Anakin to come back to the light,
05:49before losing her will to live post-childbirth.
05:514. Revenge of the Sith's Lost Monsters
05:55Keeping with Revenge of the Sith's Lost Mustafar moments now,
05:59and to a showdown for the ages that could have likely been ramped up a few more dramatic notches.
06:04Brought into being by artist Sang Joon Lee,
06:06a red lightsaber-wielding Anakin Skywalker could be seen duking it out with old master-turned-enemy Obi-Wan Kenobi
06:12amidst the fiery terrain.
06:14Only, instead of merely having the lava and crumbling mining facility to worry about,
06:18they would have been joined by a monumental alien-scorpion-lizard hybrid.
06:22You could understandably debate that cutting this grand beast from the dynamic duel
06:26led to a much more personal and appropriately emotional clash between the leading characters.
06:30But this Mustafar monster's inclusion in the sword fight would have likely been a welcome addition of peril,
06:36without taking too much away from the Vader Kenobi back and forth.
06:393. Luke's Hand Kickstarts the Sequels
06:43One of the major plot holes coming out of J.J. Abrams' reviving of the Skywalker saga with The Force Awakens
06:48centered around exactly how the wise pirate queen Maz Kanata got her hands on the most sacred lightsaber in the galaxy.
06:55Instead of spending a little extra screen time on what the Blade had been up to
06:59in the time between being attached to a severed Luke Skywalker's hand in The Empire Strikes Back,
07:03Abrams simply moved on with the action with his fingers in his ears.
07:06Originally, however, the film's since-deleted opening sequence would have actually provided fans
07:11with the missing pieces of the weapon's journey,
07:13with Skywalker's chopped mitt floating through space before burning to a crisp
07:17upon entering the stratosphere of an unnamed planet,
07:20according to a Mark Hamill fact-check on Twitter.
07:23It may have made for a bit of a grisly opening shot after a decade away from the big-screen Star Wars live-action,
07:28but it would have at least explained in a rather graphic way how Kanata potentially obtained the blue saber.
07:332. Luke Skywalker Becomes the Next Darth Vader
07:38Flirting with the murkier side of the Force in his later appearances as a grizzled, bitter Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi,
07:45you may be surprised to discover that this wasn't the first time a picture been made for the one-time farm boy
07:50to take a walk on the more questionable side of morality.
07:53After dispatching the Emperor to save his boy,
07:56the few beats between Darth Vader and his son as the former Anakin Skywalker slowly passed on,
08:01made for one of Return of the Jedi's most moving exchanges.
08:04However, George Lucas once actually jokingly pitched this sequence having a very different conclusion.
08:10As he told his co-writer, Lawrence Kasdan, when discussing the scene,
08:14Luke takes his mask off, the mask is the very last thing,
08:17and then Luke puts it on and says,
08:19Now I am Vader! Surprise!
08:21The ultimate twist!
08:22Now I will go and kill the rebel fleet and I will rule the universe.
08:25Gleefully, Kasdan actually responded by proclaiming,
08:28That's what I think should happen!
08:29before Lucas quickly backed off and noted how the film was for kids.
08:341. Count Dooku and Darth Maul Were Nearly Women
08:37The fact fans were never truly treated to the sight of Asajj Ventress committed to live action
08:42still sits as a bitter pill to swallow for many.
08:45And it wasn't as though the concept of a female Sith was outside the realms of possibility either,
08:49with both Count Dooku and Darth Maul once being pitched as being introduced as women
08:53in their respective emergencies onto the Skywalker saga scene.
08:57Once again being forged in the mind of gifted artist Ian McKaig,
09:00the designer originally conceived Maul as a pale, redlock-sporting menace of a woman with metal teeth.
09:06Too frightened by the design himself,
09:08Lucas was said to have passed up on the tin-teeth villainous,
09:11asking McKaig to design his second worst nightmare instead.
09:15In the case of Dooku,
09:16his female alternative very much formed the basis of what would eventually become Ventress,
09:20with Countess Dooku being shelved the minute Christopher Lee became available.
09:24What a damn shame.
09:26And that's our collection of awesome Star Wars moments that nearly happened.
09:30Any we missed?
09:31Then let us know all about them in the comment section right down below,
09:34and do not forget to like, share, and click on that subscribe.
09:36Also, if you like this kind of thing, then head on over to whatculture.com
09:40and find some more awesome articles just like the one this video is based on.
09:44I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars,
09:46thank you as always for clicking on this video today,
09:48may the force be with you, and I will see you very, very soon.
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