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General Grievous was very nearly another familiar foe...
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00:00If you thought some of the twists George Lucas actually managed to squeeze into episodes 1 to 6 were bonkers,
00:05then wait till you get a load of what else almost altered the galaxy forever.
00:09Gareth here from WhatCultureStarWars and here are 10 insane Star Wars plot twists George Lucas nearly made happen.
00:16Number 10, Han Solo was actually raised by Chewbacca on Kashyyyk.
00:20Acting as unquestionably the most iconic best pals in the galaxy,
00:24Han Solo and Chewbacca's friendship throughout the original trilogy and beyond
00:27helped establish both characters as the sort of lovable rogues you'd love to share a pint of blue milk with.
00:32And in an attempt to infuse some of that glorious Chewie Solo spirit into his prequel trilogy,
00:37George Lucas was actually rather close to throwing in a cheeky cameo
00:40that would have added a rather unexpected detail to the pair's relationship.
00:44On top of being gifted a solitary line in the form of I farm part of a transmitter droid near
00:49the East Bay,
00:50I think it's still sending and receiving signals.
00:52Lucas had initially revealed in his script that a 10-year-old Solo was actually an orphan on Kashyyyk being
00:58raised by,
00:58you guessed it,
00:59everyone's favourite Wookiee.
01:01Yeah, it's Chewie, it's Chewie.
01:03Yoda would have also reportedly come into contact with the soon-to-be legendary smuggler
01:06for the very first time on screen in this brief scene,
01:09with the interaction getting as far as the concept art stage,
01:12before the Episode 3 director decided against using it in the finished product.
01:16Number 9, A Potential Anakin-Padme-Obi-Wan Love Triangle
01:20Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala's forbidden romance
01:23sits as one of the key factors in the former's eventual fall to the dark side.
01:28However, their love was once very nearly made a whole lot more complicated,
01:31with it being hinted at in an early draft of The Phantom Menace
01:34that the Queen of Naboo had some feelings for her future lover's eventual master.
01:39That's right, on a couple of occasions in those early days of Episode 1,
01:42Lucas alluded to Amidala apparently being quite interested in Obi-Wan Kenobi,
01:46giving him a quote-unquote long adoring look at one point in those initial pages.
01:52This could have potentially set up one hell of a love triangle in later installments,
01:56with Anakin no doubt growing increasingly jealous of the fact that Amidala initially had eyes for
02:01his Jedi master, awkward, and this likely playing more heavily into his eventual decision
02:06to embrace the dark side, as he attempted to keep from losing his beloved in more ways than one.
02:11Ultimately, Lucas obviously decided against muddling the central romance of the prequels
02:15with any blatant Obi-Wan flickers of additional taboo love.
02:19But that still didn't stop a paranoid Anakin from seemingly alluding to this eventually erased twist,
02:23with his words of,
02:24You will not take her from me, as the pair collided on Mustafar in Episode 3.
02:28Number 8, Han Solo was nearly frozen for good.
02:31Returning to the figure who unquestionably shot first,
02:34long before he was finally given his wish of biting the dust in the galaxy far, far away,
02:39Harrison Ford was very nearly taken out of the Star Wars action altogether,
02:42in the middle of the original trilogy.
02:44While the likes of Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were said to have signed on to appear in all three
02:48flicks, Ford was only contractually obligated to show up in A New Hope and its sequel,
02:53The Empire Strikes Back.
02:54And genuinely not knowing whether his solo actor would be all that interested in playing the
02:58character again for a third time in Return of the Jedi, with Ford famously and repeatedly
03:02asking for his smuggler to be killed off throughout, Lucas decided that it was likely best to just
03:07freeze him in carbonite until it was clear as to whether they'd have a hand to play with in Episode
03:116 or not.
03:12George at one point even told producer Howard Kazanjan that he was sure Ford would never return,
03:17meaning that he was very much preparing for an almost unthinkable world where Han's last hurrah
03:22would have come in Episode 5.
03:24Thankfully though, Ford was eventually convinced to make a comeback,
03:27and Lucas went about writing the legend back into the trilogy ending mix.
03:30Number 7, Luke becomes the new Darth Vader.
03:34In what could have ranked as a twist on the same level as another Darth Vader occurrence that
03:38absolutely rocked the galaxy? There was actually a minute there when Return of the Jedi ended on
03:43the mother of all bombshells. Jumping back to a script conversation between George Lucas and
03:48co-writer Lawrence Kazan, the latter eventually noted how the former told him of a scenario he
03:52had in mind involving Luke Skywalker pulling off one hell of a heel turn late on.
03:57After unmasking his dying father as Return of the Jedi reached its dramatic conclusion,
04:02Lucas envisioned a sequence depicting Mark Hamill's character donning the iconic helmet,
04:06before shockingly claiming, now I am Vader.
04:10On the back of executing the ultimate twist as he put it,
04:12Skywalker would then proceed to kill the rebel fleet and rule the universe.
04:16Lovely stuff.
04:17Despite Kazan absolutely adoring that plan and admitting that's what he wanted to happen however,
04:22Lucas soon backtracked and reminded his co-writer that this whole thing was actually,
04:26you know, for kids.
04:27So it was probably wise not to end the trilogy on a moment that would have no doubt left them
04:31all
04:31scarred for life. Would have been memorable though right?
04:33Number 6, Uncle Owen was Obi-Wan's brother.
04:36Disney Plus' recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series confirmed that the titular broken Jedi did actually have a
04:42brother, remembering glimpses of his pre-Jedi family in a chat with a young Princess Leia.
04:47But in reality, Kenobi having a long lost bro was almost made a part of Star Wars live action
04:51history many years before that statement. With George Lucas originally writing Ben's big
04:56family reveal into Return of the Jedi screenplay many moons ago. Before Episode 6 eventually made its
05:01way onto the big screen, Lucas initially planned to make Luke's Uncle Owen Lars Master Kenobi's
05:06brother. And while this revelation was ultimately left out of the finished picture, it did actually
05:11make its way into the novelization of Return of the Jedi. With Ben noting to Luke,
05:15I took you to live with my brother Owen on Tatooine.
05:18With the legend Star Wars stories ultimately not remaining a part of the new canon though,
05:22that unexpected twist never really made its way onto the big or small screen.
05:25But who knows, if Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2 goes on to become a thing, perhaps Joel Edgerton and
05:31Ewan McGregor's versions of Owen and Ben respectively will finally explore a twist that once very nearly
05:36happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
05:40Number 5, Padme Tries to Kill Her Beloved Anakin At One Point
05:44Another element of the doomed romance that sat at the center of George Lucas' prequels, which
05:49never made its way into the finished article, it turns out that Padme Amidala was once set to take
05:54out her fallen beloved herself. Or at the very least try. That's according to prequel trilogy
05:58concept artist Ian McKaig. With the talented soul revealing a few years back that Lucas'
06:03originally planned ending for Episode 3 would have seen a stunning twist involving Anakin Skywalker's
06:08love putting a knife to the Chosen One's neck. In that earlier version of Revenge of the Sith,
06:13Amidala would have been spotted putting the pieces in place for the rebellion that was being
06:17designed to overthrow an Anakin she could see was becoming a monster, despite eventually getting
06:22within stabbing distance of the now Darth Vader on Mustafar though, she still wouldn't have been
06:26able to follow through on her mission to save the galaxy, even with Skywalker allowing her the chance
06:31to do the heartbreaking deed. She just loved that crazy youngling killer too damn much.
06:36Sadly, Lucas ultimately opted against this far superior way of writing Amidala into the ending
06:40though, instead going for the choice of sobbing wife who has the life pretty much choked out of
06:44her by her raging hubby.
06:46Number 4. Darth Vader and Boba Fett are bros.
06:49Obi-Wan Kenobi and Owen Lars weren't the only two lads who were once on the verge of becoming
06:53canon brothers. Two villainous figures who also just happened to sport the coolest pieces of headwear
06:58in the galaxy were almost revealed to be related too. Back when Boba Fett first arrived on the big
07:03screen scene in The Empire Strikes Back, fans were desperate to learn all they could about this
07:07effortlessly badass bounty hunter. And according to George Lucas' ex-wife and Star Wars editor Marcia Lucas,
07:13the OG plan would have seen the filmmaker eventually reveal in the prequels that the iconic antagonist
07:18was actually very much brothers with fellow legend Darth Vader. As time went by though, Lucas eventually
07:24fell out of love with the idea, feeling that it was simply too hokey to make a part of his
07:28Skywalker
07:28saga. Rather than have Boba turn out to be a Skywalker all along, Lucas instead went down the
07:34Jango Fett route of course, and yet another utterly tragic father-son tale was eventually laced into the
07:39Star Wars story. Number three, General Grievous was actually Maul. Speaking of iconic forces of
07:45evil in the Star Wars universe, one of the most instantly recognizable villains of all time very
07:50nearly slipped back into the prequel trilogy under fans' very noses. That's because back when George
07:55Lucas was figuring out a way to introduce the world to the cyborg menace that eventually would
07:59become General Grievous, the initial plan actually involved the shocking return of none other than Maul.
08:04After being sliced in half and seemingly killed during his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Naboo,
08:09Maul wouldn't appear on the big screen again until Solo A Star Wars Story, though he would take on a
08:13substantial role in both the Clone Wars and Rebels animated series. However, as revealed by one of the
08:19writers on those two animated shows, Henry Gilroy, Lucas did actually nearly bring Maul back under the
08:24armoured plating of Grievous in Episode 3. The concept guys almost managed to convince the mind behind the
08:30galaxy far, far away to commit to the return of Maul in the prequel trilogy too. But Lucas eventually
08:35felt it was best to have the General just do his own thing, something that Gilroy was thankful for.
08:40Number two, Ota Gunga was initially wiped out before the Phantom Menace's final battle.
08:45Playing a rather large part in taking the Trade Federation down a peg or two in the closing stages of
08:50the Phantom Menace, imagining in Episode 1 where Jar Jar Binks and the rest of the Gungan Grand Army
08:54aren't seen launching boomers at those silly little battle droids would be rather difficult at this stage.
08:59But in truth, there was actually a period in pre-production when George Lucas was considering
09:04leaving the Naboo natives out of the fight entirely. In fact, according to early storyboards for the
09:09flick, the Gungan city of Ota Gunga wouldn't have even made it into the final act of the film in
09:14one piece. Those early plans would have involved the beautiful underwater city being entirely destroyed,
09:19along with much of the Gungan race just before the Battle of Naboo got underway. Bummer.
09:25Feeling this particular genocide may have been a little too dark for his film though,
09:28Lucas eventually decided against wiping out the Gungans early on. Blowing up an entire planet
09:33in Episode 4 however? That's all fine and dandy apparently.
09:37Number 1. Palpatine Created the Chosen One
09:40Unquestionably sitting as one of the most popular fan theories you'll find on the old interweb,
09:44the concept of Emperor Palpatine actually being the force behind the bizarre conception of the
09:48Chosen One has often felt too damn logical to be wrong. After all, this was the same Sith Lord who
09:54was
09:54taught everything he knows by Darth Plagueis. You know, the dark side user who managed to find a
09:58way to create life via the force. And had George Lucas decided to leave in a few lines during his
10:03original script for Revenge of the Sith, then that twist could have very much become canon in Episode
10:083. During the famous opera scene that eventually sparked the aforementioned theories into being,
10:13Palpatine would have initially told a troubled Anakin Skywalker that he had waited years for him to
10:18fulfill his destiny. Going further, the future Emperor would have shockingly added that he used
10:23the power of the force to will the Medichlorians to start the cell division that resulted in a baby
10:28growing in Shmi Skywalker's belly. But Lucasfilm story group member Matt Martin ultimately noted
10:33that Lucas scrapped this early script bombshell due to him not wanting Anakin's story to feel
10:38predestined. And so one of the biggest mysteries in Star Wars history was preserved, opening the door
10:44for unlimited fan theories in the years to come. And that's our list of any other insane Star Wars
10:50plot twists George Lucas nearly made happen. Then please let us know all about them in the
10:53comment section right down below and do not forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button
10:58while you're at it. Also if you like this kind of thing then please head on over to whatculture.com
11:02and find some more fantastic articles just like the one this video you're watching this very second
11:06is based on. I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars, may the force be with you, I hope I see
11:10your faces
11:10very very soon but in the meantime just be good to yourself. Bye bye!
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