As should be obvious from the rapid-fire narrative pacing (and plot holes!) of Star Wars: Episode 7 The Force Awakens, a lot of scripted and shot material didn’t make it into the final cut. Now The Force Awakens ’ editors, Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon have confirmed all of our suspicions; describing in some detail two minor sequences cut from the film prior to release.
The description of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens deleted scenes come from this interview for The Hollywood Reporter:
Two main sequences are described from a longer assembly cut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The first is far more of a throwaway, though it indicates the slightly expanded role Captain Phasma was intended to have in the final film. “There was actually a fun thing with Captain Phasma ordering all the ships into the air,” Markey says, though they quickly realized the moment could only fit after Phasma was thrown in the garbage chute by Chewbacca, Finn, and Han Solo.
THR #NomineesNight Star Wars The Force Awakens editors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon pic.twitter.com/4KJjC7kHbG
— Carolyn Giardina (@CGinLA) February 9, 2016
The other scene from The Force Awakens is far more interesting. Brandon describes how Unkar Plutt, the Jakku junkyard dealer who owned the Millennium Falcon at the time Rey and Finn stole it, originally followed Rey to Maz Kanata’s castle. “They have a confrontation and Chewie comes in and tears his arm off,” Brandon said.
“Emotionally it didn’t track with the story,” Brandon says in the video, explaining the cut. It seems likely that many more cuts and changes to The Force Awakens will be uncovered in time, possibly with deleted scenes on an upcoming Star Wars Blu-ray release.
But the change to one of the most consequential narrative sections of The Force Awakens suggests larger and more drastic discussions over exactly what was conveyed at Maz Kanata’s castle. Persistent leaks and rumors held that the original script had Anakin’s lightsaber retrieved at the beginning by Poe Dameron (in the final movie this was replaced with some sort of space thumb drive). Was it possible that the Maz Kanata castle sequence was shot to be very different than the obviously truncated, odd scene that made it into the final movie?
We may have to wait for historical hindsight and some detailed Making Of books before we get to the bottom of The Force Awakens’ original shape. For now little peeks under the curtain hem (it could be a curtain on a star destroyer or something, whatever) will have to do.
