10 Movies That Changed Hugely From The Trailers

1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

On paper, Rogue One certainly sounded like the ideal Star Wars prequel, revolving around a band of down-and-outers teaming up to steal the plans to the Death Star.

And principal photography seemed to go off without a hitch, leading to the release of the first teaser trailer a few months later in April 2016.

But not long afterwards, reports emerged that Lucasfilm wasn't happy with director Gareth Edwards' job, and drafted in Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) to both re-write aspects of the script and direct almost two months' worth of re-shoots.

Initial reports suggested that as much as 40% of the film had been redone, while more recent estimates put that figure closer to roughly one-third.

By comparing the earlier trailers to the final film, it's clear that the alterations were pervasive throughout, with almost 20 shots, lines of dialogue and even entire scenes absent from the theatrical cut.

Some of the more memorable omissions include the (admittedly cheesy) "I rebel" line from Jyn (Felicity Jones), the gorgeous shot of the Stormtroopers walking along the beach on Scarif, and Jyn and Cassian (Diego Luna) transporting the Death Star's plans on foot during the film's climax.

Some of these beats were clearly cut because they didn't coincide with the continuity established by Gilroy's new climax, while others appear to have been cut for time or were always intended simply to be cheeky trailer shots.

Either way, the differences between Edwards' original film envisioned in trailers and the Gilroy-supervised final cut are absolutely staggering.

The end result is a plenty fine movie, but it's fascinating to consider exactly what that initial cut looked like, warts and all.