Two More Alternate Endings for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Revealed by IO9!
Just two days before Rogue One is released in Digital HD, the interesting revelations about the movie continue, this time with a curious report from io9 on two other potential endings of the movie.
We may not get any deleted scenes with the Rogue One home release, but the amount of potential plot points, story arcs, scenes and endings that were never filmed seem immeasurable. A few days ago EW reported an alternate ending of the movie, where Jyn and Cassian survive. Now io9 reports that this was not the only alternative ending of the movie, there were a few other endings being considered, according to John Knoll.
In the first alternate ending the Rebels crew steal the plans of the Death Star and after their ship is being damaged they flee to Coruscant trying to get lost in the heavy traffic of the planet-city. There they find a way out, at least for the plans:
Jyn and Cassian realize if they don’t get the plans off the ship, the whole mission has failed. “So they discover that Leia’s ship has just taken off from Coruscant and is on its way to its diplomatic mission to Alderaan,” Knoll said. “They know that she’s secretly working for the Rebellion and they risk blowing her cover by transmitting the plans to her ship with the hope that this transmission won’t be detected but Vader’s ship.”
Obviously, it is detected, but Jyn and Cassian realize that whether Vader catches Leia’s ship or not, they will inevitably be tortured for information by the Empire and could reveal the Rebellion’s secrets, potentially leading to its destruction. So the two Rebels decide to blow up their ship with them on it.
The second alternative was similar to the first but with a strange twist at the end. In it Cassian was a double agent who was planted by the Empire, but during the mission he realizes the real threat coming from the Death Star and switches sides.
They’ve got a carbon freeze bomb on the ship and the idea is that he forces everyone into the airlock. “I’m going to set this off and you’re all going to survive.” He sort of times it with one of the hits from Vader’s ship so he blows up the ship and sets off this carbon freeze bomb and everyone is frozen. Then on Vader’s ship they detect no life signs and they think everyone’s dead. And they’re like, “Where’s that ship the plans were transmitted too?” and they go. So I was going to leave our heroes out of the picture. It’s why they don’t show up in Empire or Jedi — they’re stuck in [carbon freeze].
Now that’s an ending we’re glad we didn’t get. 🙂
For the full interview make sure to go to io9.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Well I think they did it right in the end.
thank god they never made it to screen
I wonder how close some of this stuff got to being filmed. And the exact extent of all the re-shoots. I know we have gotten some explanation but I still feel like its too soon since release to get the full picture. Glad these stories are coming out as it makes it interesting how much trouble they were having with certain aspects of the film and where they wanted to go with it at one point or another. I expect sometime years from now we will get some really good stuff on the making of this movie, the reshoots, the actual extent of Gilroys involvement and other stuff. I know there are some stories of Gilroy getting paid 5 million for the extensive amount of work he did from June till close to release of the film last year, but I’m curious for more information. Still, the film was great regardless.
Carbon freeze bombs? That’s goofy as hell!!!
I didn’t see any of this in the Trailers 🙂
Both of these were dumb. Its obvious why they didn’t do them.
The second ending is awful, but the basic structure of the first makes a lot of sense. It would’ve made Vader consequential to the heroes, and would’ve provided a steady dose of wall-to-wall action:
Act I — Set up the team
Act II — Steal the plans
Act III — Run like hell from Vader
It’s interesting to read these alternate ideas, but I think the story we ended up with was pretty much perfect. The only thing that niggled me was how the fleet could go off to Scariff leaving C3PO & R2D2 at Yavin, yet they end up on Leia’s ship anyway. That particular cameo should’ve either been cut or changed to before they went to Eadu or however it’s spelt. Other than that, awesome stuff all round.
“The only thing that niggled me was how the fleet could go off to Scariff leaving C3PO & R2D2 at Yavin”
I’ve seen a lot of comments about this, and I really don’t understand them. is it so hard to believe that 3PO and R2 just got on the Tantive IV RIGHT AFTER that shot? It doesn’t seem like some super-confusing plot hole to me, unless I’m missing something.
The fleet wasn’t at Scariff yet. They were in orbit over Yavin 4. The droids caught a shuttle up there.
I think the Art of R1 book hinted at an early draft with a double agent, and I had assumed it would have been Bodh ; I even tweeted Pablo about it (referencing Bodhi), and he said he wasn’t aware of that……… perhaps that’s because the spy was Cassian ! Ah ha !
I would loved to have seen OT-era Coruscant. Plus, having Jyn and Cassian blow themselves up to save the Rebellion might have been more poignant than the ending we got. But I really like R1 as it is, so I’m not complaining.
I do hope, though, that they re-purposes the Coruscant material for another film. For example, having Han Solo pull off a heist on Coruscant would highlight his smuggling chops, and create an opportunity for him to go up against and outsmart some elite Imperial forces…
I’d like the idea of a Han Solo smuggling film that takes place in the grungy depths of Coruscant.
we see it at the end of the ROTJ special edition
A suicide ending would not go over well.
I like the carbon freeze, bring back in episode 8-9. Or even have Luke and Ben find them during their travel of enlightenment.
A carbon freeze bomb?
Jesus dude, no original thought even in the smallest details
They had to get all the bad ideas out of the way to get to the good ones!
These sound like fan-fiction, I hope they were only s as a joke.
Meh. When you’re brainstorming, bad ideas are inevitable. What’s important is the final product.
It’s the creative process. All ideas are welcome.
CARBON FREEZE?? Jesus, I’m glad that the Rogue One writing staff got some sense knocked into them and made this movie the right way.
There other prospective endings are absolutely HORRID. WOW, so terribly bad