10 More Deleted Star Wars Moments You Won't Believe Nearly Happened

10. Ponda Baba Loses His Head - Episode IV - A New Hope

Swiftly making an impact following on from his introduction in 1977's Star Wars, the furry thug known as Ponda Baba, alongside his pal Dr. Cornelius Evazan, picked a fight with the wrong folks within Mos Eisley's cantina.

Sure enough, his attempts to bully young Luke Skywalker resulted in his arm meeting the business end of a lightsaber.

However, had the original version of this scene survived when putting the picture together, things could have been a whole lot worse for ol' Baba.

You see, according to behind-the-scenes images doing the rounds online (via OriginalTrilogy.com), there appeared to be plans at one point to have Obi-Wan Kenobi cut off the Aqualish's head during their scuffle.

Originally, Ponda Baba was to have been beheaded by Obi-Wan in Star Wars (1977), but it was deemed too gory for the child audience and was changed to a severed arm instead. pic.twitter.com/J0uapEOhon

— Horror4Kids (@horror4kids) April 6, 2022

Probably feeling this gory moment would have been a little too grim for a movie primarily aimed at kids, though, the call was soon made to just have the space wizard slice off the bully's arm instead.

It was likely the right move, with the visual of Baba's bloody limb definitely being enough to sell the idea of lightsabers being a rather effective and dangerous weapon. 

Also, slicing the head off a punter is probably not the best way to avoid unnecessary attention in a busy bar, right?

Still, though, those images show just how close fans really were to seeing Ponda's head shockingly roll in Episode IV - A New Hope.