10 Unused Star Wars Scenes That Would Have Changed Everything
9. The Empire Strikes Back's Wampa Attack
The Batte of Hoth is one of the finest set-pieces in the entire series, with its frantic surface battle and panicky claustrophobic scenes below ground as the rebels evacuate the icy tunnel system. The first iterations of the sequence, however, added a whole subplot about a pack of wampas held captive by the rebels.
During the build-up to the battle they are seen stalking the rebel soldiers, and C-3PO cheekily removes a warning sign so the Imperial troops blunder into the wampas' holding pen. An Imperial Snowtrooper walks obliviously into the room and is hilariously devoured off-screen to the bemusement of all, including Darth Vader.
The scenes were justifiably cut for pacing, because they messed with the urgency of the Imperial attack, and because the wampas were pretty stupid. The wampa design is one Star Wars' least inspiring, being nothing more than a big angry yeti, and the costumes were particularly ridiculous.
With the scenes included, Hoth would have been a far less successful sequence, and the wampas would have attained notoriety as one of the original trilogy's worst ideas.