The ever-terrifying Darth Vader is always a force to be reckoned with. Though, he’s usually more revered by fans than his enemies, which makes for some awesome moments on screen when we see Vader appear as the menacing Sith that he is.
Rogue One: A Star Wars story, in fact, was one of those films that solidified it even more. After not seeing Darth Vader in a film since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, audiences everywhere were excited to see him make a cameo in the Star Wars spinoff movie. In the film, we first see him on Mustafar when he’s approached by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), and their conversation, unfortunately, leads Vader to Force-choke Krennic for his apparent insolence. Later, by the end of the movie, we see him go absolutely ballistic on the Rebel troops as the movie begins to meld into the opening scene of A New Hope.
But those weren’t the only scenes that Vader was going to appear in during the movie. And luckily on Wednesday, ILM Animation Supervisor Hal Hickel shared a glimpse of what that scene would have looked like via his Twitter account.
See Darth Vader in new photo from Rogue One deleted scene
Down below, you can see the shot of Darth Vader that Hickel posted on Twitter. While the Twitter caption didn’t provide much information, he later replied to a tweet inquiring about the photo, in which he elaborated that the scene was going to be between Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, but it was eventually cut.
In another tweet, he clarified, “This scene was cut simply because it no longer served the narrative.” So while it would have been awesome to see this interaction take place, we understand if this scene didn’t have a place in the final cut.
Over on the Star Wars Leaks subreddit, someone mentioned that the scene looks like the teaser shot from one of a Rogue One trailer. In the video (which we have timestamped here at 1:55), Vader appears at the very end, and we see him turn around after looking at some display with plans or something else.
It’s quite possible that these could have been from the same scene or a different version of it. And we know quite well by now that many times, scenes make it in a trailer, but they don’t actually make it into the final cut of the movie.
Additionally, on his Twitter account, Hickel shared two more behind-the-scenes photos he took from the set. Those included some shots from the Yavin base and even little R2-D2.
It’s great to see those behind-the-scenes photos, and the Vader one was certainly a treat. Even if that scene didn’t make it into the movie, it’s exciting nonetheless to see Vader once again and think about what would have gone down at that moment.
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