5 Star Wars deleted scenes that are still considered canon

Every movie has some scenes that are filmed but, for whatever reason, never make it into the final movie. Maybe they slow the movie's pacing down too much, or they end up conflicting with another part of the film, or maybe putting the same information in a different scene is easier. Usually, when those scenes are cut from the movie, they're no longer considered canon. However, thanks to the expansive universe that has been built around Star Wars, there are plenty of examples of scenes that are still considered canon to the Star Wars storyline, despite the fact they were never officially a part of a movie. 

Here are 5 deleted scenes from the Star Wars franchise that are still considered canon.

1. A New Hope - Luke Talks to His Friends

Originally, Luke Skywalker's introduction in the original Star Wars film would happen much earlier. Luke would have talked to his friends about having seen the space battle the movie opens up with and learned that Biggs was leaving. The scene ended up being cut because it added too much time to the movie before Luke would meet the droids, and the plot would really start moving. But that scene is considered to have still happened, with it still taking place in the movie's novelization and the story's audio drama version. Those characters have also appeared in other Star Wars books and comics despite never appearing in the movie. In fact, a few of them have even appeared in some of the new shows on Disney+.

2. The Phantom Menace - Qui-Gon Jinn Destroys a Probe Droid

In The Phantom Menace, when Darth Maul arrives on Tatooine, he dispatches several probe droids to find the Jedi he is hunting. One of these droids locates Qui-Gon Jinn and leads Darth Maul to him. However, a scene cut from the movie featured Qui-Gon realizing a probe droid was tailing him and destroying it with a lightsaber. This scene was ultimately cut because it also features Anakin saying goodbye to Jira, which slows down the process of leaving Tatooine after the podrace. Still, the destruction of the probe droid still exists in the novelization and other retellings of The Phantom Menace. The scene also concludes with Qui-Gon worried about what the probe droid could mean and begins to run back to the ship with Anakin. Given that the next scene we do see in the movie features Qui-Gon and Anakin running, seemingly without explanation, we can assume that the explanation is that the deleted scene still happened even if we didn't see it. 

3. Attack of the Clones - Anakin Meets Padme’s Family

When Anakin and Padme arrive on Naboo in Attack of the Clones, there were originally scenes where Padme took Anakin to her family home where he met her parents and her sister. These scenes were eventually cut to keep the Naboo portion of the movie focusing on just those two characters and the time they spent together, but we can assume that the meeting in those scenes still took place. For one, those scenes are still included in the novelization of the movie. Plus, the same actors who played Padme’s parents and sister reprised their roles in Episode III for Padme’s funeral scene. They would also appear in the novels Queen’s Peril and Queen’s Shadow, which take place between the prequel movies. 

4. Revenge of the Sith - Birth of the Rebellion

Padme originally had an additional plotline in Revenge of the Sith that detailed her working with some other senators who opposed the growing amounts of power that Palpatine was accumulating during the war. These scenes ended up getting cut because they didn't focus on the downfall of Anakin and ultimately didn't have any payoff in the movie, given that they were only planting seeds of the Rebels that wouldn't exist until the next movie. However, the conversations in these scenes still happen. Actress Genevieve O'Reilly was hired to play a young Mon Mothma for these scenes and ended up having her role cut entirely from the movie. Yet she was brought back to play the character again in Rogue One and Andor. These conversations that never ended up being in the movies are still considered to have happened and be some of the earliest moments in the birth of the Rebellion. 

5. Return of the Jedi - Rebel Raid on the Bunker

When the Rebels are first attacking the Shield Generator on Endor, there was an extended sequence filmed of Han Solo, Chewbacca, Leia Organa, and their group of Rebels having to fight their way through several Stormtroopers to get to the center of the base. This was ultimately cut in the interest of time and getting to the battle sequence quicker. However, given that the size of the base is established in exterior shots that do exist in the movie, we can guess that it did take some time to make it through the base to get to the center. Though it was left out of the movie, the sequence was recreated for the game Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, suggesting that the events of the scene still happened, even if we didn’t see it in the final cut of the movie.