When Rogue One: A Star Wars Story landed in theatres in 2016 it floored Star Wars fans. The film has since been hailed as the best of the modern Star Wars era, and with good reason. Not only did Rogue One blow away all expectations, brought in over $1 billion at the box office and earned a high place on the leaderboard for Star Wars film ratings. From the moment the first teaser trailer dropped, fans were hooked. Which brings us to an interesting point – several key scenes, including the most iconic moment in the trailer, never even made it into the final cut of the film. Using cut scenes for trailers has been a growing trend in recent years, but it’s particularly confusing for Rogue One, as at least one scene could have further enhanced the movie (if that’s even possible).
Set in the fantastical world that so many fans have come to love, Rogue One occurs right before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope. The film uses a delicate touch, carefully placing itself between two films without creating any major retcons. It’s an impressive feat all around, and that’s before considering how many edits and changes the film underwent before release.
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Scenes From the Trailer Absent From the Film
One of the most memorable scenes from the teaser trailer portrays Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) garbed in an Imperial Uniform as she (almost) stares down the camera. While Jyn appears in this disguise in the film, she does not actually appear on screen in this shot. In the trailer, Jyn is standing in a long tubular corridor reminiscent of those in The Empire Strikes Back. This setting never materializes in the film, and it’s quite a shame. Something about this shot drives home the high-stakes heist, as it reminds fans of the opposition Jyn and the team face. Somehow, in one shot, the trailer made our hearts race in fear of what was to come.
This scene isn’t the only one from the trailer that didn’t make it into the film. In fact, approximately half the scenes in the trailer never made the final cut. Another significant moment in the teaser is when Jyn offers the quip, “This is a rebellion isn’t it?… I rebel.” Shockingly, that remark doesn’t make the final cut either (much as it feels like it is tucked somewhere in the movie).
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Why Did Rogue One Cut so Much Footage?
Even before Rogue One hit theaters, the film underwent both massive rewrites and reshoots. We could spend all day arguing about whether or not these were a good thing, but without seeing all of the cut footage, it’s impossible for fans to really know. One report even went so far as to claim that a whopping 40% of the movie was reshot (and given how about half the trailer didn’t make it in, it’s easy to understand why people were quick to jump on this bandwagon).
Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One, spoke about some of this on The Director’s Cut podcast. As it turns out, while some scenes may have been cut for timing or thematic elements, other scenes were cut because they simply didn’t fit. For example, the iconic scene with Jyn in the corridor was filmed before they wrote an explanation; in other words, it didn’t make sense to shoehorn it into the movie. It was one of those scenes pretty much shot on impulse, inspired by happenstance on set. This is how the creative process flows sometimes, and even when it doesn’t work out, it can still create memorable moments. The lasting impact of this cut scene proves that.
Fans could choose to be upset about all the cut footage used in the Rogue One trailer. One could argue it’s false advertising (other movies have been hit harder for less). But it’s important to remember that these scenes were intended to be in the film when the teaser trailer first dropped. Likewise, the trailer has some fantastic moments, and we’re lucky they saw the light of day. Imagine if these scenes weren’t in the trailer – we wouldn’t have these memories to go with the film. It makes you wonder what else got cut from the movie that we missed out on seeing.
Rogue One: A Star Wars story is streaming on Disney+.
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