As is the case with most movies, there were things in Star Wars: The Force Awakens that didn’t make the final cut. You can’t keep everything or every movie would four hours long, and in the editing process a number of scenes and moments had to be excised. The Oscar-nominated editors of The Force Awakens, Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon, recently revealed that there was originally more from Captain Phasma and Unkar Plutt.
When The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon at the recent Nominees Night, the reporter asked about things that were left out of the final cut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Markey started it off revealing that there was supposed to be more of Captain Phasma. She said:
There was actually a fun thing with Captain Phasma ordering all of the ships into the air, but they didn’t realize that Han and Finn had just thrown her down a garbage chute.
Given how much hype there was surrounding the chrome-plated Captain Phasma, played by Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie, leading up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, many fans were let down by how little the character is actually in the film. Though this doesn’t sound like much, it does indicate that she was, at one point, more of a presence, though it’s hard to give orders from inside a garbage chute. We have heard that she’ll play a bigger role in the upcoming Rian Johnson-directed Star Wars: Episode VIII, which we’re looking forward to because there’s the potential for her to be totally badass.
Maryann Brandon was asked the same question, and she shared that we almost saw more of Simon Pegg’s character, the shady junk dealer Unkar Plutt, and it sounds like it would have been an awesome scene. She said:
There is a scene in the cantina, or our version of it, the Maz castle, where Rey, once she separates from Finn and wanders off, and Unkar Plutt is there, because he’s been tracking her because she stole the Falcon from him. And they have a confrontation and Chewie comes in and rips his arm off.
Over the course of the saga we’ve heard it threatened that Chewbacca might rip off a few arms, but as of now we’ve never seen it depicted on screen. Maryann Brandon goes on to say that it was ultimately cut because, while it was a funny homage to those limb-ripping references from the earlier Star Wars films, it just didn’t quite fit with the rest of the scene, emotionally.
That makes sense. By the time they reach Maz Kanata’s castle, things are pretty serious. If Unkar Plutt, the Crolute junk boss of the desert planet of Jakku, shows up and is maimed in this manner, it might have driven home that Rey couldn’t go back to her home. But it works better for her arc if she reaches this decision on her own, that she realizes her destiny is out in the galaxy, not back on Jakku, rather than having her hand forced. Still, I would love to see a deleted scene of Chewbacca pulling of Simon Pegg’s arms.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens just crossed the $2 billion threshold at the worldwide box office, Star Wars: Rogue One opens on December 16, and Star Wars: Episode VIII just started filming and will open December 15, 2017.
