Rey’s Vision In The Force Awakens Almost Showed Vader and Luke’s Battle
By Elaine Tveit
There seems to have been a lot more to Rey’s vision in Star Wars: The Force Awakens than was shown on-screen.
Making Star Wars has reported evidence that a long-standing rumor is true based on a scene in Star Wars: Rey’s Journey, a canon juvenile fiction book detailing Rey’s adventures in Episode VII from her perspective.
Below is the text of the new scene in Rey’s vision, from pages 99-100 of Rey’s Journey.
"As she peered into the distance, she saw a man in black wielding a red Lightsaber. His face was covered with a mask, molded to approximate a human face. But the mask’s eyes were dead and empty. The man’s red Lightsaber clashed against a brilliant beam of blue. A young man with blond hair raised his own Lightsaber and fought furiously against the monster in black."
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The rumor has its origins early last year with word that an actor had been cast in the role of Young Original Warrior in The Force Awakens (via Making Star Wars). After the premiere of the film in December 2015, /Film released a piece detailing twenty deleted scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut. One of those scenes was a duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker on Bespin.
But the duel wasn’t original footage from The Empire Strikes Back. Per Making Star Wars, the scene was reshot using new actors, including the aforementioned Young Original Warrior (Luke Skywalker). The reason for reshooting it may be, the scene of Luke getting his hand cut off was shown to Rey from a different angle than what we see in Episode V (via /Film).
/Film also notes that this scene was the reason original versions of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker action figures were released as part of The Force Awakens wave of Star Wars toys.
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I can see why this scene didn’t make it into the final cut. While it would’ve been cool to see Luke and Vader’s duel through Rey’s eyes, it doesn’t really serve a function other than coolness, nostalgia for older fans, and a sort of brief recap of a crucial scene in Star Wars history for brand new fans just coming into the fold through Episode VII.
Visually, however, it must be incredibly interesting, both from a viewer’s perspective and the perspective of the people behind the scenes, who were reshooting one of the most iconic sequences from The Empire Strikes Back. We can only hope it will be among the bonus features included on the film’s Blu Ray.