10 Star Wars Moments That Were Almost WAY Darker
7. Luke's Severed Hand With A Life Of Its Own
In the climax of The Empire Strikes Back, in the moment before THAT big reveal, Darth Vader slices off Luke's right hand during their lightsaber duel. While this set the scene (taking the long road to get there) to Rey coming into possession of Luke's lightsabre, it also required Luke receiving a mechanical hand.
The prosthetic looks, on the surface, like a normal hand. It is only when it is opened up that the mechanical elements are revealed. However, in the Return of the Jedi, there was a scene proposed at the storyboard stage that would have seen Luke losing his hand again.
This time, the hand would not simply flop to the deck of Jabba's sail barge or, worse, go tumbling into the waiting mouth of the Sarlaac; instead, it was storyboarded to flip over and start to run toward Luke's dropped lightsabre.
Although Star Wars is very much a fantasy saga, this was a little too close toward body horror. Lucas opted to settle for Luke's mechanical hand being shot but remaining attached. Luke simply covers the damage with a glove and the movie continues on.
If you're in the mood for something gross though, it should be noted though that the flesh may have rotted off in the preceeding years, as the steel is exposed by the time Luke appears in The Force Awakens.