Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 10 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets We Learnt From ILM

5. Maz's Role Change Was Mainly Economical

Like any movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens went through a lot of changes throughout production. However, unluckily for fans trying to speculate ahead of release, one of the biggest made its way into the movie's trailers; the second Teaser featured a shot of Maz passing Luke's lightsaber to Leia, establishing Kanta at the Resistance base at the end of the second act, yet in the film she was left behind on Takadona, almost forgotten.

There were rumours leading up to release this was to do with Lupita Nyong'o's performance not gelling or a major shift in the film's MacGuffin, but it sounds like the real reason may be something a little less creative and more financial: keeping the special effects budget down. According to Pritchard:

"She was in the film towards the end, but she was very much on the sidelines and it was ultimately decided, well, is it necessary to do a load of visual effects shots for her standing somewhere off to the side of frame. So we decided to keep her where she was able to deliver that fantastic performance that Lupita gave. Ultimately that's J.J.'s decision."

That's a pretty satisfactory explanation, although it would have been nice to have had a scene establishing she survived the destruction of her castle (which she presumably did as Nyong'o is returning for Episode VIII).