10 Awesome Star Wars Ideas That Nearly Happened
From gritty massacres, to a live action Ventress, and many more epic nearly-Star Wars moments...
When forging a rich cinematic universe, crammed full of vibrant worlds, alien races, and mystical forces, a few changes in direction are always to expected. And that was very much the case when it came time to finally blast off to a galaxy far, far away all those moons ago, and this narrative flexibility was still apparent coming into the most recent Disney+ Force-sensitive shows.
In short, what initially may feel like the best course of action for a Star Wars feature or series isn't always guaranteed to translate effectively onto a big or small screen. Yet, in the case of the following collection of concepts that weren't deemed worthy of being immortalised in Star Wars live action or animated history, you'd be forgiven for wondering why Lucasfilm opted against doubling down on such epic/daring sequences or narrative choices.
For a whole host of reasons, these pieces of concept art or early draft ideas were ultimately given a hard no in the end. But that still won't stop your writer from gushing over the brilliant Star Wars plans and suggestions that unfortunately never made it past the pitching stage.
10. Anakin Skywalker Really Embraces The Dark Side At The Jedi Temple
Proving to be the real turning point when it came to Anakin Skywalker's inevitable fall into the Dark Side, the fallen Jedi'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.
However, according to Emperor Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid at Salt Lake City's FanX convention in 2015, the 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."
And 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, he did recall a conversation with George Lucas over the vivid slaughtering of the youngsters where the director explained:
"That's what he's like, this guy, he's uncompromising. People should know it."
Though it was clearly a wise move steering clear of too graphic a massacre scene for the sake of a PG-13 rating, seeing an uncompromising Anakin display just how far he'd fallen in such a disturbing manner would've likely made for a much more chilling closing stretch to the Prequels and his long-awaited transformation into Darth Vader.