EW Reveals a First Look at Several Deleted Scenes from Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Entertainment Weekly has revealed new details about five of the fourteen deleted scenes from the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Blu-ray/DVD. Anthony Breznican spoke with director Rian Johnson who talked about these scenes and why they ultimately decided to cut them from the film.

 

The passion and love for this project is evident with Rian Johnson, and it almost sounds like he was choosing between a favorite child when it came to having to say goodbye to some of these scenes. As it has been previously reported, these deleted scenes are not raw film footage, these are fully developed/produced and edited scenes, and it was clearly a tough choice for the director:

“I love each one of the scenes individually. I mean, every single one of them was not cut because it didn’t work. It was cut because the movie as a whole was better without it.”

 

We had previously broke the titles of these delete scenes to you here, so we have lined up their titles from that piece.

 

 

It’s Kind of Weird That You Recorded That

 

It appears R2-D2 wasn’t the only droid using images of memories to motivate a character in The Last Jedi, as it turns out BB-8 had a similar moment with Finn, showing him what Rey said to him before she left for Ahch-To, as he laid unconscious. Johnson realized the scene wasn’t needed to help sell the narrative so it was cut, though the director appears to really have a soft spot for this scene and Boyega’s performance:

“I thought it was a really sweet little scene. I loved John Boyega’s performance in it. Ultimately it was meant to explain his motivation for going [to find Rey and quit the Resistance], but we realized that you understood his motivation, because he tells it to Rose. Once we realized we could get away without it, it was something that just naturally fell away.”

“Little sneak,” Johnson says. “You’ve got to watch what you’re saying around BB-8. It’s all on the record.”

 

The scene would have worked well as a “last time on Star Wars” recap about Rey and Finn’s relationship, as many TV shows often do, but ultimately it wasn’t needed.

 

 

Caretaker Village Sequence

 

This next scene might be the most talked about deleted scene out of the whole set, for a multitude of reasons. First off, because Rey running along the coast intensely with the lightsaber lit appears in the trailer, so flashes of it existed in the promotion for the film. Secondly, this was a scene that led to early reported rumors that the Knights of Ren were on Ahch-To, which as we know turned out being inaccurate, as this ended up just being your old fashion Caretaker keg party.

 

After Rey initially sees the village, Skywalker appears to take this as an opportunity to test her. Knowing full well what it is, Luke tells a white-lie (from a certain point of view), telling Rey that it is a warrior tribe primed to attack the village. Luke proceeds to tell her that if she attacks, they will only come back stronger, with an intensified level of vengeance, and that a Jedi would never interfere because of this. Rey ignores Luke’s advice and storms towards the fire, only to find a Caretaker party.

 

While Johnson clarifies this was not the missing third lesson we have been waiting to discover, it was definitely a test, and one that Rey failed. Johnson explains Rey’s mentality and reasons behind her actions:

“Originally it was just a breaking point for her. Okay, he’s gone too far,” Johnson says. “This is the point where she finally says, ‘Okay, if you’re not gonna help, then I’ve wasted too much time here.”

 

Keeping this scene would have changed the context of Rey’s final Force connection with Kylo Ren in the hut, as it would have made Luke less surprised had this scene of her distancing herself from him took place in the film. Instead, as Johnson explains, they go from a positive moment, to him coming across her and Kylo touching hands in the hut:

“It’s much more of a crushing reversal when Luke finds her in the hut [talking to Kylo,]” Johnson says. “You get the sense that she and Luke were actually making progress, as opposed to, oh, things were screwed up.”

 

And that third lesson? Don’t hold your breath. Breznican points out that Luke’s third and final lesson for Rey may be left for interpretation by the audience, or perhaps it’s something that J. J. Abrams can introduce in Episode IX, since it has technically been left open. Breznican joked that it is his problem now, and Rian Johnson responded with the most Jedi response ever:

 “Not problem, but possibility,” Johnson clarifies. “There are no problems, there’s only potential.”

 

 

Luke Has a Moment

 

One scene that many fans may end up wishing remained in the film, is Luke and Leia, connected through the Force, grieving together over Han Solo’s death. After Luke finds out about Han’s passing, he reconnects with the Force, immediately bonding to his sister:

“It’s both of them having the connection, and that also then led you to think that Leia was thinking about Han’s death,” Johnson says. “It was a really lovely moment.”

 

Johnson never said this, but from a fan perspective this must have been the toughest scene to delete from the film. It carries so much weight, and besides the dice moment at the end of the film, this would represent the final time the “big three” are connected to one another, with Luke and Leia wrapping their heavy hearts around Han’s memory through the Force.

“I was very sorry to lose it. I think it’s a beautiful performance from Mark Hamill,” Johnson says. “But I think that we get a similar beat with him, later when he’s in the Falcon with R2.”

 

 

Mega Destroyer Incursion – Extended Version

 

In this scene Finn and Rose are in an elevator after having stolen First Order office uniforms, when Finn is recognized by a former colleague, a stormtrooper, one Breznican describes as garrulous, earning serious Scrabble points.

 

This scene would have added a bit of levity to the intensity of their mission, and Johnson points out that for Star Wars tropes, they don’t get much better than old fashion sneaking around the bad guys’ turf:

“Sneaking through the mega-destroyer, there’s some really fun stuff in there. It just made me laugh every time I saw it. But you can see very obviously when you watch the movie as a whole, there’s no way you would want to slow down at that part of the film to play that whole section.”

 

Probably the most interesting element to this deleted scene with Finn’s chatty former-colleague, is that the First Order (aside from the higher-ups) are unaware of Finn’s defection and impact in the Resistance against the First Order! Breznican explains:

After this Stormtrooper ultimately recognizes him, Finn realizes that the First Order has covered up his defection and role in helping the Resistance destroy Starkiller Base. Rather than sound the alarm, the good ‘ol boy trooper just has a hardy laugh that his old troopmate FN-2187 was promoted to officer status ahead of him.

 

It makes sense why this scene was cut, but it will be fun to watch and take in its feeling of light-hearted danger, with old fashion caper movie overtones.

 

 

Phasma Squealed Like a Whoop Hog

 

And finally, the scene in The Last Jedi with more action movie one-liners than a Die Hard sequel, Finn’s ultimate showdown with Phasma, and as Breznican reveals, Rian Johnson refers to Phasma as the “Kenny from South Park of Star Wars”, in that she keeps coming back. Now all joking aside, Phasma’s alternate death scene sounds way better than what ended up in movie, but decide for yourself:

Rather than Finn finally gaining the upper hand on Phasma, she has him beaten — and surrounded by other Stormtroopers. That’s when they begin talking. Finn unspools the story of her cowardice in The Force Awakens, turning over the shield codes to Starkiller Base to save her own life. The other Stormtroopers shuffle uneasily. They’re not sure it’s healthy to know any of this.

Phasma is showing something through the gash in her half-destroyed mask: fear.

Before the other Stormtroopers can react, she does a quick-draw on each of them, blowing away her fellow soldiers. Then as she and Finn clash again, she is hit with a blast herself, hurled into the inferno of the crumbling hangar bay.

 

Johnson changed this scene solely for the sake of the film’s pacing. Ultimately Phasma’s fate is the same, but in a much different way. Instead of a dramatic mutiny, it is Finn rising up, saying “Hey” and hitting her across the face. As Breznican points out the original version sounds like it definitively seals Phasma’s fate more than the final cut. Does this mean the door is left open for her return once more? Breznican ends his piece with that thought:

Now, we don’t quite know. As Luke tells Leia, “No one is ever really gone.”

 

This will be a change fans will likely have a gripe about, as it sounds like the initial sequence was much more dramatic and impactful for both characters, and a more fitting end to their arc.

 

Those are just five of the fourteen deleted scenes that will appear on The Last Jedi home video release. Between these completed sequences and the other features listed, we will have a lot more content than we were given with The Force Awakens‘ initial release.

 

Some of these scenes truly carry a lot of weight to them, this isn’t Chewbacca ripping off Unkar Plutt’s arm (although that is very cool). These choices were no doubt difficult ones for Rian Johnson to make, and you can clearly tell how much they still mean to him and his appreciation of the performances. In the end the fact that they are fully produced and available to us is a treat, as we can go back and view them any time we want!

 

Source: Entertainment Weekly

 

@JohnnyHoey

“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.”

 

 

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John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast

"For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."

John Hoey

John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast"For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."

62 thoughts on “EW Reveals a First Look at Several Deleted Scenes from Star Wars: The Last Jedi

  • March 2, 2018 at 5:24 pm
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    Yeah out of all of them… Phasma sounds like the one I’d miss the most. Only because I wanted this series to learn from past mistakes and not undersell the “cool” guy for once. You could argue Fett was wasted as well in the OT. Especially in the PT… not counting Maul. I wanted Phasma to be different. For the record… I can kind of see why this was cut. Though I am shocked at the bad editing here. That it actually made it to the final film. The hyperkaze separating them… to then have Phasma’s reemergence from the smoke like she’s entering for the first time.

    Ah well… water under the bridge at this point. 😛

    The Han impact… should have been in TFA. So I don’t blame that getting cut here. No Luke in that version. In my mind.

  • March 2, 2018 at 5:31 pm
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    If Luke and Leia could connect, the entire map-to-Luke plot of TFA would look pointless. (Ehm, that wouldn’t have been the only one though…)

    • March 2, 2018 at 5:41 pm
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      Not really?

      Difference between an emotional connection and giving an exact navigational path to a forgotten planet.

      • March 2, 2018 at 6:44 pm
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        Kylo got quite a bit of information about Luke’s whereabouts when he connected with Rey and Luke was enraged by that to a point where he blew up a stone hut…

    • March 2, 2018 at 5:59 pm
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      It was clear Luke disconnected from the Force UNTIL he heard about Han’s death. That’s why he had no idea about it. So it makes sense.

      • March 2, 2018 at 5:59 pm
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        Beat me to it.

  • March 2, 2018 at 6:13 pm
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    There are going to be some interesting fan edits!

  • March 2, 2018 at 6:17 pm
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    Ok, I love TLJ. But the Plasma scene and the Luke and Leia scene. Man! Now that I know, my heart bleeds a little… the Plasma death, man! So much cooler!

  • March 2, 2018 at 6:21 pm
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    Ok, here is the thing.

    If Phasma comes back in IX I’m fine with the “death” scene we got. If she stays dead, then I need to find a way to edit the alternate death scene into the movie 😉

  • March 2, 2018 at 6:36 pm
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    Looks like some really cool and dramatic scenes but they had to be cut out of the movie because it was too long already. You wouldn’t want to cut out scenes like Luke fishing and getting intimate with the Thala-Sirens in favor of a scene where Luke connects with Leia to grief over the death of Han Solo. Oh and we definitely needed to see everything that happened in Canto Bight… Important stuff right there.

    • March 2, 2018 at 8:23 pm
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      This. A thousand times.

    • March 2, 2018 at 8:39 pm
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      Yes. Seeing BB8 used as a slot machine only to use those coins as a machine gun was critical to the overall story of the trilogy.

      • March 2, 2018 at 9:42 pm
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        Yes, it’s smart to point out a gag instead of everything around it.

        • March 3, 2018 at 12:00 am
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          Sorry I was bored to death by the time they got to Canto bight and fell a sleep. Did I miss something important?

          • March 3, 2018 at 8:11 pm
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            Only the point.

    • March 2, 2018 at 8:56 pm
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      Indeed. It baffles me how Rian approached this screenplay. I recently rewatched Looper and found myself loving it and cannot fathom how this is the same guy who wrote The Last Jedi.

      Because, I guess in his mind Canto Bight and a save the animals/ capitalism is wrong was much more important than say Luke and Leia having a moment to both grieve over Han Solo; one of the members of the OT.

      I guess the saying, “Let the past die; kill it you have to.” really does go skin deep. A shame. But hey; just my view. Like it if you want.

      • March 2, 2018 at 9:41 pm
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        Yeah, the theme and point of Canto Bight is more important to the film’s overall theme than Luke and Leia’s moment. That is exactly correct.

        • March 2, 2018 at 9:50 pm
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          The theme and point of Canto Bight is literally IRRELEVANT to the entire movie LOL. You can delete the entire Canto Bight sequence and nothing changes. The anti-capitalism message is ABSURD in a film designed to make over a Billion Dollars LOL. Star Wars isn’t supposed to be a “social justice” special anyway.

          • March 3, 2018 at 5:03 am
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            It’s not anti-capitalism you dolt, it’s anti-profiteering. Very distinct difference, but from your post history you seem happy to make up reasons to hate TLJ beyond the usual suspects you’ve already beaten into the ground. Seriously, go die in a fire.

    • March 3, 2018 at 2:30 pm
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      Don’t worry. You can still make a fan edit once the blu Ray is released. That’s the beauty when a filmmaker releases his deleted scenes. Be happy for it. Now, let’s smile for once 🙂

      • March 3, 2018 at 3:50 pm
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        I could but it would be a lot of work. Disney likes to hardcode a timestamp into their extra scenes which looks pretty ugly and is a lot of work to remove. Unfortunately the additional scenes probably won’t make me smile because of all the missed potential. My hope lies with IX and I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of smiling when the Solo movie comes out. After all the gravitas TLJ and R1 had I’m looking forward to some lighthearted entertainment 🙂

        • March 3, 2018 at 6:16 pm
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          Come on, don’t sell yourself cheap! You can do it.
          As passionate you are pointing out the negatives about TLJ, I’m sure there is some passion left to make a fan edit that would satisfy you.

          • March 3, 2018 at 6:36 pm
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            No. it’s not worth my time really. I won’t watch TLJ more often than I watch Atatck of the Clones which is roughly every year when I do a SW marathon. The reason why I am so passionate about pointing out the flaws of TLJ is because I see my self in the middleground (I rated it 6/10) and still I get antagonized by fanboys who can’t accept that their movie is A) far from a masterpiece and B) unnecessarily divise. The IP of Star Wars is protected by such an impressive fortress of fanboyism that every criticism of the franchise is seen as a sacrilege (unless of course you bash the Prequels. That’s still cool). It is absurd that both extremes, the haters and the fanboys, are completely oblivious to their extremist positions that won’t allow any grey areas.

          • March 3, 2018 at 10:17 pm
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            I would agree with you normally. But from my position I can’t because i really do love the TLJ. It’s my 3rd fav behind TESB and ANH.

            But I have to disagree, or at least throw a curveball at you. Just as it’s cool to hate the PT, it’s also cool to hate TLJ and Disney/Lucasfilm right now.

            I would even argue that because of the hate towards Disney/Lucasfilm at the moment, people seem to find new love for the Prequels which they have been bashing to the ground for almost 20 years until TLJ came around.

          • March 3, 2018 at 10:39 pm
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            I know you love TLJ or why else would you be so overly defensive of a movie which divided the fanbase, only received mediocre ratings and resulted in a relatively dissapointing BO? Of course you can love this movie but you have to admit that the reaction to an instant classic, like say Nolan’s “The Dark Knight”, looks a lot different from the reaction TLJ got. There is less hate for the prequels now because after 20 years of hating the movies and destroying Jake Lloyds life it started getting old once the new movies came out. In addition to that TLJ showed that Lucas isn’t the only one who messes up Star Wars as soon as he stops listening to feedback. Fyi hating TLJ isn’t as cool as you might think it is. It’s not a fringe oppinion so you don’t get Hipster points for hating the movie, offended fanboys will call you misogynist or sesxist if you don’t join their Rey worshipping cult and worst of all, most fans just wanted a SW they could all enjoy. I would recommend you to forget that TLJ is a Star Wars movie the next time you watch it on BlueRey. Try to think of it as just another SciFi movie and once you do that you’ll probably be able to see flaws that shouldn’t be there if TLJ was indeed a masterpiece. We can already see this happening to people like Harloff. Again, feel free to love the movie as much as you want but don’t discredit other oppinions just because you don’t feel the same way.

    • March 3, 2018 at 5:39 pm
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      Eh…Luke has a very similar moment when R2 shows him Leia’s original transmission. That scene is a thousand times more cinematic than what’s being describe here. Likely Luke sits in his hut, squints his eyes really hard and the camera pushes in to some dramatic music…On the other hand, the scene with R2 recalls not only the first time Luke saw Leia but the first time all of us as an audience saw her. It’s a way better scene with more emotional impact. If you’re mad that there’s no moment to grieve Han’s death, blame JJ for not putting that in TFA where it belonged.

      • March 3, 2018 at 6:28 pm
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        They could have had both scenes and I blame JJ and RJ for communicating properly how to deal with the loss of Han or Leia or Ackbar…

        • March 3, 2018 at 10:52 pm
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          “Leia” hadn’t been lost at the time filming was done.

          • March 3, 2018 at 11:17 pm
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            They could have let her die by cutting the space Leia scene and use the Bonus scene where Luke communicates with her via the force to have an emotional moment between Luke and Leia. A production has to adapt to unfortunate events liek the death of Carrie Fisher but Rian said: “not my problem, better do what KK wants and have space Leia in there”. Now she’ll be reduced to a sidenote in the opening crawl. If we’re lucky there’s going to be funeral scene at the beginning of IX. Wasted potential that could have been avoided with better communication.

          • March 3, 2018 at 11:34 pm
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            It is kind of funny that you specifically used quotation marks for a quote you made up. How do you think fans would have reacted when it was revealed Carrie filmed many more scenes for the movie but Rian cut them when he learned of Carrie’s death?

          • March 4, 2018 at 12:42 am
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            Quotations indicate spoken statements, in this case to illustrate a hypothetical scenario. The fans would have understood it given the circumstances especially if those scenes would be included as bonus material. I guess the fact that you rather used the oppinion of fans as an argument instead of commenting on my approach to handling Leia’s death speaks for itself.

          • March 4, 2018 at 12:52 am
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            I know how quotation marks work, I just thought it was funny. You seem to be confusing Leia and Carrie. I’d be absolutely shocked if fans would prefer Carrie’s final scenes filmed as Leia end up on the cutting room floor in order to kill the character off in a way that wasn’t even scripted. To me it seems to honor her more to leave the movie as she filmed it and figure out how to handle the actress’death afterwards. I haven’t talked to anyone who felt the character desrved LESS screen time due,to the death of the actress portraying her.

          • March 4, 2018 at 1:16 am
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            Fans wanted an adequate farewell for our beloved princess. I’ve heard many reviewers express their surprise how Leia wasn’t killed off in an appropriate way when they had the chance to do it. I’m sure people would have appreciated this beautiful image of a peaceful princess Leia floating in space over a offscreen death in the opening crawl. This isn’t the first time movie stars died during production. A fitting farewell is more important than using all the scenes an actor shot just because they are dead. I mean they cut the force communication between Luke and Leia about Han? They missed the chance to give Leia a nice farewell AND at the same time they cut scenes between Fisher and Hamill. I can’t wrap my head arround this, really.

          • March 4, 2018 at 1:34 am
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            But that was because of redundancy and the keeping of a better scene between Fisher and Hamill. Look, I don’t know who you talk to so im not calling you a liar, I just haven’t heard or seen anyone anywhere saying Leia deserved less screen time because Fisher passed away. You also have to remember you’re coming at this from the perspective of a Rian Johnson hater so you’re not being objective as much as looking to criticize him at any and every opportunity.

          • March 4, 2018 at 2:06 am
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            Also you’re claiming people would have preferred her peacefully dying in space versus her death being referenced in the opening crawl of 9, but that’s not the choice. You should be asking if people would have preferred that death in space to seeing her in the rest of the movie. Sacrificing the scene of Luke giving her the dice, kissing her on the forehead, and telling her no one’s ever really gone is too much. I’m certain, even if you won’t admit it, that you’d be even more critical of Rian if you found out this scene ended up on the cutting room floor in favor of killing her off early in the editing room with Carrie dying and never knowing how drastically they changed her part in the film.

          • March 4, 2018 at 2:07 am
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            How am I a Rian Johnson hater? I already wrote multiple times on this forum that I would rate TLJ a 6/10 but I guess if you don’t praise RJ you’re automatically a hater. So next time my art director at work hands me back one of my sculpts and says “Do it again, this isn’t quite what we are looking for, it doesn’t quite fit the artstyle” I’ll just call him a hater. Constructive feedback is no longer a thing, we are talking about Star Wars here. Everything is off limits unless you are talking about the Prequels. There’s this thing that I like to call “the newsaper” effect. Once something is written in the newspaper it becomes the uncahngeable truth in the mind of some people. It is similar with certain movies. Once they are done the fans automatically assume there is no better way this could have been handled. So any “shoulda coulda woulda” is immediately shut down as hate.

          • March 4, 2018 at 2:17 am
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            It’s more that you’re shoulda, coulda, woulda-ing something as sensitive as a beloved actress’ actual death and how to handle it. It comes across as somewhat heartless to me to suggest that the minute her body was in the ground Rian should have essentially edited her out of the movie. And when you’re just making complete assumptions that Rian was just acting under orders from Kennedy with no evidence to support it, it comes across as hate rather than constructive criticism. Your work analogy is flawed too. A better analogy would be you and your boss discussing your options, trying multiple ideas, and then after releasing your final design, having someone outside the industry Monday morning quarterbacking and criticizing you for your choices.

          • March 4, 2018 at 2:29 am
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            Rian Johnson, the film’s writer and director, said that the idea came from LucasFilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, who remembered Luke telling Leia in Return Of The Jedi about her own Force abilities.

            “She kept asking, ‘Leia’s a Skywalker, Luke gave her this speech in Jedi and told her basically, ‘You have this potential, too.’,” he told Entertainment Weekly. (taken from express.co.uk, Shaun Kitchner, 19 Dec. 2017)

            It’s amazing how much you miss the point I’m making about Leia. I would love to see as many scenes of her as possible but more than that I wanted a fitting and emotional last moment with her character. An adequate goodbye, no simple “Leia has died” in the opening crawl. There’s nothing heartless about me wanting to let her die in space, it’s a question of when it’s the right time to say goodbye. And if you googled what I was asking you to google you would see that this is by no means an unpopular oppinion but rather the first search result that shows up!

            As for my analogy at work I used it to describe that art can often be improved upon and personal feelings should not interfere with your professional judgement. If I invest 2 months of my life in sculpting a character and they send it back for the 5th time to change this and adapt that I still have to be open to feedback instead of resorting to baseless “you’re a hater!” accusations. Btw there’s a phase of production once a product has been shipped. It’s called “post mortem” where the team discusses what they f*cked up during production. This includes sales figures and customer feedback. TLJ is in this phase right now so I think constructive feedback is more than appropriate at this point in time.

          • March 4, 2018 at 2:47 am
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            I googled that like you suggested. I found mostly saying exactly what I said…that cutting her final performance would have been too,high a price. The reddit forum that came,out overwhelmingly disagrees with you. Constructive criticism, as I understand it, is meant to produce better results in the end. I’m not sure how saying Rian should have edited her out of the movie at this point in time is constructive. JJ’s script is done but filming hasn’t begun so,anything can change. It’s in his hands and I do hope he received constructive criticism to assure that the loss of Carrie is handled the best way possible. I speculate that in production meetings, no one who says “Rian should have just killed her off and cut most of her scenes” will be seen as offering constructive criticism. It isn’t constructive if it doesn’t show a path for better future results, and complaining about something that cannot be changed now doesn’t create a path for better future results.

          • March 4, 2018 at 3:17 am
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            I didn’t meant for you too google the results since they only sum up professional oppinion (we know critics loved TLJ), I wanted you to look at the suggestions given when you type the 3 words to estimate the public oppinion by the average google users. This means that people googling articles concerning Leia most often type “Leia should have died” which means that this isn’t some random fringe oppinion.

            But back on topic. The post mortem phase doesn’t try to change things that can no longer be changed, it tries to evaluate mistakes that were made moving forward. If a portion of the fans had a problem with the missed opportunity to give Leia an appropriate goodbye a heartwarming funeral scene could be shot instead of just mentioning Leia’s death in the opening crawl. If people felt like Luke should not have died then maybe it would be a good thing to include more force ghosts scenes with hamill than initially anticipated. If people dislike the lack of backstory for Snoke then maybe he could be given a backstory in IX. Maybe KK shouldn’t insist on certain plot developements because the space Leia scene wasn’t very well received…

            The point is that we should not have to hold back with criticism just because it’s Star Wars. Criticism is now more important than ever and suffocating it under the premis of “criticism = hate” is contraproductive. I think thef act that China dropped TLJ after less than 3 weeks (!) after the premiere should be deeply concerning. In China SW doesn’t enjoy the cult status it has in the US and Europe. The brand “Star Wars” didn’t save the movie from criticism and it performed worse in China than Rogue 1. TLJ had mediocre ratings with audiences and underperformed at the BO. This isn’t the end of SW not by a far stretch. But a flawless masterpiece looks different and the community can certainly help to shape future SW movies if we try to be objective rather than “haters” and “fanboys” with no grey areas in between.

          • March 4, 2018 at 3:26 am
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            Well I agree that the most important thing (and the only way to objectively rate a movie as good or bad) is Chinese box office.

            The problem is you’re conflating all these different ideas. If you Google “is the Earth..” guess what comes up. By your reasoning, it doesn’t matter that the resulting pages offer overwhelming round-earth arguments, most people think the Earth is flat. What does Kennedy wanting that scene have to do with Carrie’s death? Surely you’re not suggesting Rian wanted to edit that scene to kill Leia but left it in because Kennedy wanted the scene.

          • March 4, 2018 at 3:45 am
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            I guess you are not working in the industry or you are deliberately trying to misunderstand me. China’s BO is a symptom of a flawed movie that underperformed on all levels. It is easier to identify the unbiased audience reception in China because there is less nostalgia attached to the brand “Star Wars” in Asia. I’m trying to offer you different perspectives how success (or failure) can be measured and all you (want to) hear is: “China’s Box office is the most important thing.”…

            As for “the earth is round” google searches indicate that interest in the Flat Earth is rapidly increasing (which is a trend that should be concerning). Likewise the search trends for Leia’s death are an example to show you that the interest in her character is dominated by the idea of wheter or not she should have died or not. If everyone agreed that space leia was awesome you wouldn’t find these search results anywhere near the top just as much as you wouldn’t find Flat Earth theroies if they weren’t a hot topic atm. I mean do I really have to explain the importance of search interests on google to you?

            I mention something like KK’s negative influence on moviemaking (she’s a producer no goddamn director) or the failure of the movie in the second largest movie market on this plant but this information bounces right off your fanboy fortress. Forbes estimated 1,6Bn ina worstc ase scenario for TLJ which ended up making even less at 1,3Bn. In fact, not a single analyst didn’t overestimate TLJ’s BO bu I guess that wouldn’t matter to you either. You would either ignore it or deliberately misunderstand it.

          • March 4, 2018 at 3:56 am
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            No, I get that The Last Jedi failed the same way the New England Patriots failed. They were picked to win and didn’t.

            People who believe the Earth is round don’t Google it. There’s a selection bias. Statistically the results are skewed because the google search doesn’t represent a random sample of viewers.

          • March 4, 2018 at 3:59 am
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            I am aware of selection bias, I pointed it out when Cinemascore was brought up to defend the audience ratings of TLJ. I deliberately avoided the selection bias by typing “leia should” rather than “shoudln’t”. The negativ is auromatically added due to an overwhelming search in that direction! Selection bias alone also doesn’t mean that the google search statistic is useless if you use it as a measurement of interest. At the moment “Leia should (have died)” dominates the searches on google which indicates a growing trend of people disliking her sendoff in VIII.

          • March 4, 2018 at 4:02 am
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            That’s not what it indicates, that’s how you interpret it. These things can be very misleading, just like the flat earth nonsense.

          • March 4, 2018 at 4:11 am
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            What’s the correct interpretation then. If you use a neutral combination like “leia should” and variants of “be dead” take up the first 5 spots on the list of suggested results. So it’s clear what people have been clicking on. Btw for reasons of comparison the flat earthers only managed to occupy the first two spots of “earth is” list and they have been busy.

          • March 4, 2018 at 4:20 am
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            What you’d have to do is find a random sample of viewers and ask them if they would have preferred losing the Leia scenes we got in favor of killing her off early. Google isn’t going to get you that.

          • March 4, 2018 at 4:31 am
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            As I said, I use this for estimating RELATIVE interest. Like the BO in China, mediocre ratings on metacritic websites, debates on scoial media, number of trailer clicks etc… they are all indicators, sets of data. They can be used to estimate the reception of TLJ if you use them in relation to comparable sets of data. For example TLJ didn’t meet BO expectations you need to ask why. The ratings on Rotten Tomatoes were a lot worse than TFA’s and R1’s ratings, youhave to ask why. The BO drop of was more drastic than in any other SW movie before, again the question is why. Things like that don’t happen to well received movies like TFA. When looking at the “leia should” example you have to ask yourself why “leia should have died” is searched more frequently than let’s say “leia should (rebuild the resistance)” or “leia should (use the force more often)”. To ignore these trends as uninteresting data is bizarre.

          • March 4, 2018 at 4:40 am
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            It’s only bizzare if you have an agenda. One could say ignoring what people are actually saying on all the hits that Google search produces is bizzare, but again, not in light of an agenda. Obviously you’ve gone way off topic to,a criticism of the film in general (something that creates the appearance of a hater). My issue is with killing Leia early on as you wanted. Doing that necessitates losing her later scenes. So again, the only real way to resolve this would be to get a random,sample of people who saw the movie and ask them if they would have rather seen her killed off early and lose the majority of Carrie’s final performance, including her scene with Luke.

          • March 4, 2018 at 4:56 am
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            I could tell you all the things I love about the movie but my idea when you started this conversation was to show you that there are problems with TLJ, they have real life consequences on multiple levels. Therefore there’s the need to criticise for the franchise moving forward.

            The problem is that the fanboys are so biased these days that I feel the need to mostly highlight the negative aspects since I can assume they will automatically agree with me whenever I say something positiv about the movie anyways which doesn’t add much to the discussion. If I was talking to a hater I would point out the brilliant acting, the mostly fantastic throneroom sequence, the breathtaking destruction of the Supremacy and so on and so forth. To me TLJ is a mediocre movie so I’ll naturally try to counter extreme views depending on which end of the spectrum they are.

          • March 4, 2018 at 4:59 am
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            Fair enough.

          • March 4, 2018 at 2:25 am
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            You’d make a really poor researcher if you think googling that supports your argument.

  • March 2, 2018 at 6:48 pm
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    Bring me dat supercut!

  • March 2, 2018 at 6:49 pm
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    Deleted scenes, and the amount of them, can really telling of a film’s production.

    I remember watching AOTC’s deleted scenes and listening to the director commentary. It was pretty apparent Lucas had no idea what he wanted this film to be and how to convey it. Like a making it up as he goes, which we now know was pretty much the case.

  • March 2, 2018 at 7:56 pm
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    Damn. I wish they hadn’t cut that Luke and Leia scene.

    • March 2, 2018 at 10:20 pm
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      Would have been one of the most emotionally-compelling scenes in the film. But I guess it would make us “like Luke” so Rian had to delete.

      • March 3, 2018 at 2:28 pm
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        You would have hated the film anyway, since you hate KK and RJ so much. So, where’s the point?

  • March 2, 2018 at 9:52 pm
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    Rian Johnson is just a piss-poor filmmaker at the end of the day. He’s amazing at kissing up to Kathleen, which insures his job for the next decade, but he’s HORRID at Star Wars.

    • March 3, 2018 at 2:23 pm
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      Oh, here it goes again! And I thought you made progress…

      • March 3, 2018 at 10:50 pm
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        Well she did call him Rian instead of Ruin.

    • March 4, 2018 at 11:17 am
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      Agree1000%%%%% Percent!

  • March 3, 2018 at 2:32 am
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    Can’t wait to see the deleted scene where Luke is forced back into the Resistance when Kylo and The Knights of Ren attack Ach’To. The scene on the beach sounds awesome. Also the deleted scenes with Anakin and Obi-Wans force ghosts. Not forgetting Luke v Snoke’s epic force fight, Kylos training, Hans funeral and of course Leia’s tragic death scene. Oh and Reys parents reveal.

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