10 Alternative Opening Movie Scenes You Never Saw

10. Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber Lands On Jakku - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The final filmed version of Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens with an action-packed sequence set on Jakku, which introduces us to a number of the new trilogy's focal players, namely Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).

But an earlier draft of the script, details of which were actually leaked online 18 months before The Force Awakens' release, envisioned an entirely different opening scene focused instead on Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) himself.

Or rather, his lightsaber-holding hand, at least.

In an interview several months after the film's release, Mark Hamill confirmed that the rumoured opening featuring Luke's severed hand floating through space, lightsaber in tow, and landing on Jakku was indeed legitimate:

"I can tell you now that in the original opening shot of [The Force Awakens], the first thing that came into frame was a hand with a lightsaber, a severed hand that enters the atmosphere, and then the hand and bone burns away and goes sticking into the surface of Jakku...and this alien hand comes in. Don't know if it was Maz, but it was an alien hand who takes the lightsaber away, and then the movie proceeds as you see it."

It's certainly an evocative image, though not very PG-friendly, nor is it particularly clear how Luke's hand would be able to travel from Bespin to Jakku, while still gripping the Skywalker lightsaber no less.