10 Shocking Movie Twists That Nearly Happened

The Force Awakens took us back to a galaxy far, far away in 2015, and marked something of a return to form for the Star Wars franchise. The first Disney outing drew heavily on the original trilogy, pivoting away from anything to do with prequels and Clone Wars in the wake of a years-long backlash that began with Jar Jar Binks.

Part of this was reinstating the practical effects that had enchanted fans to begin with, as well as loading the film with references and hidden guest stars. One character who ticks all of these boxes is Simon Pegg's Unkar Plutt, a sleazy junk dealer from Jaaku who is, in the first act, the owner of the Millennium Falcon. That is until Rey (Daisy Ridley) steals the ship, meets up with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew/Joonas Suotamo), and goes off to save the galaxy.

But, in a scene conceived of by Pegg himself, Plutt suddenly appears at Maz Kanata's (Lupita Nyong'o) castle, confronts Rey and fights Chewbacca. How? He activated the tracker on the Millennium Falcon's hull that was put there by the Empire in the original Star Wars! While this would have been a fantastic surprise and callback to the original series, director J.J. Abrams felt there just wasn't enough time for it...