10 Star Wars Moments That Were Almost WAY Darker
1. Executions On Coruscant With A Light-Guillotine
Concept artist Adam Brockbank shared the attached image on his Instagram account. This is from the early stages of working on the script for The Rise of Skywalker. The final film was divisive, which is potentially the nicest thing that can be said about it, though this image is a taste of what could have been.
On Coruscant, the First Order has established a brutal hold on the people that still live there, engaging in public executions. This light-guillotine (we'll take a lightsabre, but thanks anyway) was a way to both frighten the locale and connect these deaths to the Jedi, who may have been slaughtered in Revenge of the Sith, but were still out there.
This came from Colin Trevorrow's early script for Episode IX and, frankly, it sounds much better than what was delivered. The film would have taken a darker tone, though in true Star Wars fashion would have concluded with hope. Full details from the film that never was can be read here.