12 Things That Almost Completely Changed 2017’s Biggest Movies

1. Carrie Fisher's Death - Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The Original Plan: Now, this one's a little different than the rest. The original plan was for fans to sit down, enjoy a Star Wars movie and not be constantly thinking about the mortality of the movie's cast members.

What Happened?: Carrie Fisher died almost a year before The Last Jedi hit cinemas, but her part was fully completed, and director Rian Johnson quickly ditched any prospect of Fisher's role being altered in post-production.

As such, watching The Last Jedi for the first time was a peculiar emotional rollercoaster and an exercise in gut-wrenching tension for everyone. General Leia is almost killed several times throughout the movie, but survives to the very end somewhat ironically, considering that her dying in the movie would've solved a major problem for Lucasfilm moving forward.

Did It Work?: Fisher's death was handled extremely well all things considered, in that the story wasn't awkward changed and she simply got a touching tribute in the movie's end credits.

However, it was practically impossible not to watch the movie, at least the first time around, with a completely different mindset from what the filmmakers hoped we all would when they were shooting it. Such is the inevitability when actors die before their movies hit cinemas, and that's without even mentioning the divisive fan reception to the movie, especially Leia's infamous "Superman" scene.

Johnson was really damned either way here, and viewers being preoccupied with thoughts of a dead cast member rather than just soaking in the sweeping space opera was totally out of his hands.

What do you feel about these surprising near-misses in 2017's biggest movies? Annoyed? Pleased? Shout it out in the comments!