Two Darth Vader Scenes Rumored Cut From Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

SPOILERS ON for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Love or hate the movie, one refrain has been common amongst everyone who saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story this weekend, its opening bow at the box office:

Holy crap that Darth Vader scene!

The last scene of the movie saw Darth Vader go absolutely nuts on the Rebels who were desperately trying to get away with the plans to the Death Star, tearing them apart with the Force, lightsaber swings, and more. Earlier in the film, we saw Vader use his signature Force choke move (and add a new signature pun for good measure).

It’s a good time to love Darth Vader.

But according to a new rumor, there may have been even more Darth Vader to love that was put to film. Treat this explicitly as rumor – it’s coming second-hand from someone who is not in any way involved with the movie.

According to Xavier Gens, a French director known for Hitman and The Divide, there were two Darth Vader scenes cut from the film. Again, Gens has no direct ties to the movie at all, but allegedly claimed on his facebook page that a friend of his who worked on visual effects for Rogue One divulged two other scenes, both of which would have major consequences for the Star Wars universe, were originally in the film. Read on for the details of what we’re rumored to have missed, but remember to take it with a whole bucket of salt. StarWarsNewsNet has already said these rumors are false, citing unnamed sources.

Darth Vader vs… Saw Gerrera?

Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker, will have some of his backstory during the Dark Times told on Star Wars Rebels this January, but there was almost a major piece of backstory of his told during the movie itself, if the rumor is true. According to the rumor, after the initial prologue scene, which ended with Saw Gerrera rescuing Jyn Erso, we would’ve seen another interim story. That tale? Darth Vader going after Saw Gerrera, and the two clashing, resulting in Saw’s injuries like his missing legs and breathing problem.

A scene like that would’ve probably taken away from Vader’s big moment at the end of the movie – if you show him rampaging twenty minutes in, it spoils the fun of him rampaging with two minutes left, so if this scene was truly shot for the movie, it’s very easy to see why it was cut. Still, the idea that Saw and Vader’s parallels were created by Vader himself adds a fun dimension to the Rebel’s backstory.

Darth Vader Destroys a Jedi Temple

The second scene had way less details in the rumored description, merely saying that Darth Vader’s other cut scene featured the Sith Lord destroying a Jedi Temple, to “impose the dictatorship of the Empire on the galaxy.” That would be extremely out of place in the movie, which relies heavily on making the Jedi a mythical force (lower-case F) that represents the mythical Force (upper-case F).

The only place this would make sense to have happened, in context with the movie, would be the Kyber Temple on Jedha – but if Vader had already been to that particular location, it would be pretty hard to justify characters like Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus having survived such an encounter. It could be a nice callback to the first thing he ever did as Darth Vader, though, when he marched on the Jedi Temple at Coruscant and slaughtered a bunch of younglings. Good times, good times.

Whether these rumors are true, or simply another filmmaker having some fun thinking things up, it doesn’t seem like much, if anything, would be added to the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story experience by including them.