Did Chewbacca Have A Major Scene Cut?

Den of Geek is reporting that Chewbacca had a major scene cut from the final cinematic version of The Force Awakens.

In a recent interview with Collider, JJ Abrams revealed that around 20 minutes of footage was trimmed from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What were they? It may be some time before we discover the answer to that question, but we’ve discovered some fairly strong evidence for a major deleted scene in Alan Dean Foster’s The Force Awakens novelisation.

The scene in question takes place at a cantina on planet Takodana, where Rey, Finn and Han hope to find help from Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o). In the cut sequence, Rey bumps into Unkar Plutt (Simon Pegg in an uncredited cameo), the scrap dealer from whom she stole the Millennium Falcon back on Jakku. Plutt’s tracked the Falcon to Takodana, and isn’t too happy that his prized possession’s been stolen from under his nose.

Rey aims her newly-acquired blaster at Plutt, only for him to snatch it off her. Chewbacca steps in to protect Rey, when Plutt lashes out. Chewie does what Han once warned C-3P0 about: he rips Plutt’s arm out of its socket.

It’s all there on page 166:

“Grabbing the thrusting arm, a roaring Chewbacca twisted and ripped it off at the shoulder, throwing the dismembered limb clear across the room. Looking down at himself, Plutt let out a scream of agony…”

Now, it’s not clear whether the scene was deleted because it was considered extraneous, or whether it was considered a bit too graphic for a PG-13 or 12A rating. It does, however, chime with rumours that were circulating a year ago that Chewie finally gets to do a bit of arm ripping in The Force Awakens.