The story of Rogue One and its extensive reshoots has been covered in depth both here on Jedi News and across the interwebs. Director Gareth Edwards’ standalone film underwent quite a few changes during the script-to-screen journey. Rogue One editor John Gilroy spoke about creating the film’s action-packed third act in this article from January 2017. Speaking of the third act, one of the most memorable scenes from the entire Star Wars saga (at least in my opinion) took place during the final minutes of Rogue One.
You know what scene I’m talking about.
In an interview with Cinema Blend, Rogue One writer Gary Whitta reveals his initial plans for Darth Vader’s dramatic action scene at the end of the film. It would have been quite different from his chosen finale that we saw play out on the silver screen.
The version I pitched (but never wrote) had Vader on the Scarif beach single-handedly slaughtering his way through a Rebel blockade at the base of the Imperial tower. The version in the Raddus hallway works much better because it’s so contained, feels more horror than action.
