Warning: This article reveals details about the ending of Rogue One
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Three months after its release, people still can’t stop talking about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and all of the different directions the film could have gone. The film was initially praised for the bold choices it made with the central protagonists’ fates, while there was much discussion about shots and sequences featured in trailers that never made the final cut. Writer Gary Whitta recently revealed there was a slightly happier ending for two of our lead characters, but that plan was abandoned. Chief Creative Officer and Visual Effects Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic John Knoll, who originally conceived the concept of Rogue One, revealed even more planned endings for the film, which introduced some interesting concepts we’d still like to see explored in future films.
When speaking with io9, Knoll discussed two different potential endings he conceived before any writers were officially hired. As everyone who has seen Rogue One knows, the film ends with all of the main characters being killed during the Death Star’s attack on Scarif. However, one alternate ending had Jyn and Cassian now only escaping the planet on a Rebel ship, which is then pursued by Darth Vader.
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In hopes of losing Vader, the duo makes jumps through hyperspace, eventually arriving at Coruscant. “And the last jump they do, they try to get lost in the traffic that’s around Coruscant,” Knoll explained. “It’s a giant cloud of ships. Ten-thousand ships coming and going and they’re trying to get lost in that traffic but they don’t make it. There’s still an hour’s flight away from Coruscant and their ship gets damaged.”
Knowing they need to get the Death Star plans into the right hands, the two must act quickly. “They discover that Leia’s ship has just taken off from Coruscant and is on its way to its diplomatic mission to Alderaan,” Knoll revealed. “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 by Vader’s ship.”
Realizing they’ll either be killed or captured if they went this route, Jyn and Cassian would have then decided to blow up their own ship as to avoid letting the Empire determine their fate.
Another version of the film, Knoll described, would have featured Cassian as a double agent planted by the Empire inside the Rebellion. Much like we saw his conflicted nature when deciding not to kill Galen Erso, Cassian would have realized that the Empire would have used the Death Star to commit genocide, not just intimidate their rivals, and fully embraces the Rebellion.
When Cassian realizes how much harm he has done on behalf of the Empire, he attempts to save his fellow squad by setting off a “carbon freeze bomb” that would put everyone in stasis, much like Han Solo at the end of Empire Strikes Back. With everyone in carbon freeze, Vader’s ship would detect no signs of life and leave the ship behind, allowing the characters to return at some point in the saga’s future.
Do you prefer either of these endings or think the filmmakers made the right choice with the film’s conclusion? Let us know in the comments!
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[H/T io9]
