'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Cut A Han Solo Mourning Scene

The characters of Star Wars: The Last Jedi certainly missed their comrade Han Solo, but one specific mourning scene did not make into the final product.

The scene took place after Luke discovers Han is no longer alive, where he proceeds to go into his hut alone and sit quietly. His eyes well up with tears of his old friend, but then the scene transitions over to Leia Organa, who is grieving in a similar way across the galaxy. Leia is sitting next to a window on the Raddus resistance starship, and Last Jedi director Rian Johnson suggests that they are sharing this mourning moment together (via EW).

"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."

So why did this scene get cut? Well, originally the scene was used to segue back to the resistance ship, but Johnson then decided that they should stay on the island for a while longer.

"We realized just for pacing in that section we had to stick with Rey and Luke, and we wanted just to go straight from him slamming the door of the hut into the day-in-the-life montage, of him going around the island. Taking that bit out suddenly propelled us forward into that segment in a way that just felt much better for the film."

There is a moment of mourning for Luke in the Millennium Falcon, but Johnson still loves the original scene.

"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."

The good news is that fans should get to see this scene in the additional content on the home video released. You can see an image from the deleted scene in the photo above.

Solo: A Star Wars Story lands in theaters on May 25. You can grab your copy of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Digital HD on March 13th and on Blu-ray March 27th.