10 Movie Characters Totally Changed During Production

10. Bodhi Rook - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The Character

Cargo pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), who defects from the Empire in order to help the Rebel Alliance in their plot to steal the plans to the Death Star.

By taking custody of a holographic message recorded by Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), he plays a major role in kick-starting the movie's events, and ultimately lays down his life to see the mission through.

What Changed?

Rogue One was significantly changed during an infamously lengthy round of re-shoots, and Bodhi grew to become a far more important character compared to the original shooting script.

When filming started, Bodhi was actually an Imperial engineer named Bokan who was kidnapped by the Rebels and put to work for Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), where he developed a Stockholm Syndrome of sorts and agreed to help fight back against the Empire. Ahmed himself compared the character to Dennis Hopper's insane photographer from Apocalypse Now.

Ahmed's character suffered near enough the same fate in both versions of the script - dying while helping Jyn (Felicity Jones) and co. deliver the Death Star plans - though it originally came slightly earlier in the film's climax.

It's easy to see how streamlining the character to make him a simple defector would be more palatable for casual audiences, as the whole Stockholm Syndrome aspect requires some tough tonal balancing and raises uncomfortable questions which would detract from the overarching story.

Bodhi ultimately turned out to be one of Rogue One's more likeable and interesting heroes, even if he - like most of the movie's characters - wasn't really given enough breathing room all things considered.