The Force Awakens: Maz Kanata Used The Force In Deleted Scene

Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould revealed that Maz Kanata used the Force in a deleted scene from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

In an interview with Collider, Corbould described the deleted scene where, if it had been kept in the film, the extent of Maz Kanata’s Force powers would have been explored.

"There was a particular part of a scene that never made it, where they go underneath the castle and they’re going into the underground passageways, and stormtroopers are coming down the stairs and Maz uses her powers to collapse the ceiling."

Corbould didn’t give a reason for why the scene wasn’t included. In fact, if he had his way, it would have made the cut.

"From my point of view, [that] worked absolutely brilliantly because you had all the main actors running up and then Maz does her bit and then the whole ceiling collapses in front of them, but that never made it. That was a shot I was quite proud of, actually, it worked really, really well."

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From a story standpoint, I could understand why it wasn’t included. Maz doesn’t strike me as someone who would suddenly break out with badass Force powers. In the movie, she says she knows the Force, but she never speaks about using it. Rather, she advises Rey to let it guide her on her journey.

On the other hand, there’s no reason why she couldn’t have developed her Force powers enough over the thousand or so years of her life to be able to collapse a ceiling. She’s no Jedi, as she herself admits; but something J.J. Abrams once discussed was the idea of the Force being more accessible than it appeared in the prequel trilogy, given the polar divisions as Jedi and Sith who were trained based on the presence of midichlorians.

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As to the canon status of this scene, that’s something to ask the Lucasfilm Story Group. But if not in Episode VII, perhaps we’ll see what Maz can really do with the Force in Episode VIII. Maybe, if Rey can get Luke Skywalker to come out of hiding, Maz will want to train to be a full-fledged Jedi herself.