(Note: Event though this article discusses what didn’t make it into Star Wars: The Force Awakens instead of what did, there still be spoilers ahead. Take heed, and perhaps go see the movie over Christmas weekend!)
If you’ve been geeking out over Star Wars: The Force Awakens for as long as we have, it probably wasn’t hard for you to pick out some moments from the trailers that didn’t make their way into the finished film. It’s not an uncommon practice these days, and certainly not surprising.
One that stood out to me was Luke Skywalker explaining the history of the Force in his family, though we don’t see much of him except for his hand and never see to whom he’s speaking. Since Mark Hamill didn’t have any lines, that one obviously either got cut or was always intended to be part of Episode VIII.
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Still, that wasn’t the only bit from the trailers to be left out, and director J.J. Abrams talked about one scene in particular in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. It featured Maz Kanata, the wise alien pirate played by Lupita Nyong’o, giving the blue lightsaber that used to belong to both Anakin and Luke Skywalker to someone very different than who it ended up with in the film: General Leia Organa.
According to Abrams, that was part of more screen time for Maz in general, until it was decided it didn’t work.
"That was a scene actually filmed, but we took out. At one point, Maz used to continue along with the characters back to the Resistance base, but we realized that she really had nothing to do there of value, except to be sitting around. Lupita did film scenes on set for that sequence, but it felt it unnecessary. So we ended up leaving those things out."
Had that sequence remained in The Force Awakens, it wouldn’t have affected Rey much — she’d still run away from her destiny on Takodana and end up reuniting with the lightsaber in the movie’s climactic battle — but it would mean Finn wouldn’t take possession of the lightsaber until later. Presumably, Leia would give it to him before he accompanied the team making the attack on Starkiller Base.
Next: Star Wars: The Force Awakens -- Who is Maz Kanata?
That wouldn’t change the destination of the movie’s story but would modify how it got there (nor does it answer how Maz got the lightsaber in the first place, an even more pressing question). Undoubtedly, when The Force Awakens comes out on home video, we’ll see more deleted scenes and be able to trace some of those back to the trailers as well.