Regardless of one's opinions surrounding the Star Wars sequel trilogy, it's difficult to deny that it was all rather disjointed in the grand scheme of things. Sure, the individual movies each certainly had their moments, but the overarching theme seemed to revolve around just winging it. Some elements were added in at the last minute, others were removed just as unceremoniously, and rumors continue to swirl detailing what might have been. Now, one such rumor has finally been confirmed, and it's a handful.
As full as Star Wars: The Force Awakens was with references and callbacks to the original Star Wars trilogy, it turns out it almost took things a step further. Recently, the Twitter account UberFacts posted a tweet alleging that the movie was originally planned to open with a rather macabre shot. The post claimed that the film's initial script started out with Luke Skywalker's severed hand drifting through space, still clutching his iconic lightsaber hilt. As goofy and grim as that may sound all at once, Mark Hamill himself decided to clarify things regarding his character's disembodied extremity, and it turns out the truth may be a bit more wizard than fiction.
Hamill quoted the tweet with his own addition, offering some interesting information that sounds just a little gross for a Disney production. "Fact Check: TRUE," he said. "As my hand hurtled through the stratosphere, the flesh & bone burn away & the lightsaber impales the surface of an unnamed planet." It's not exactly difficult to see why such a shot was removed from the finished product, but it would still be oddly fascinating to see. Hamill then added his own funny little stinger referencing his short and meme-worthy appearance at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. "Just imagine: Had this sequence been retained, I would've had bookended cameos, plus TWICE the screen time!"
Fans of the movie (and angry people who continue to watch it out of spite) likely remember how Luke's iconic lightsaber held a rather ambiguous mystique, given how it ended up in the hands of Lupita Nyong'o's Maz Kanata under mysterious circumstances. She never even explained how she got it, only referencing an interesting tale "for another time," and Daisy Ridley's Rey went on to use it seemingly without ever hearing that story. That opening shot may not have cleared things up much, but at the very least, it could have teased something more.
This is just one more aspect of the Star Wars sequels that screams "missed potential." While there's no denying that The Force Awakens was a satisfying re-introduction into the series and The Last Jedi was the best entry since The Empire Strikes Back, it's even harder to deny that the lack of a cohesive structure from the beginning held the trilogy back from becoming something truly great as a whole.
Obviously, a shot of a hand burning up in the sky wouldn't have fixed the trilogy's multitude of problems on its own. But it could have kicked up ripples that vastly changed the feel of the first movie. Who knows? Maybe that small change would have drastically altered the entire story. Or maybe it would still be the admittedly enjoyable "I've got a bad feeling about this" fest that it is, just with a gross beginning.
The Star Wars saga is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: Mark Hamill/Twitter