Today, we received our advance copy of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray (which is currently playing on a never-ending loop on a television in the other room as I type this). The movie is great. (It really is.) But, one of the big draws here are the elusive deleted scenes because, hey, more Star Wars!
I have now watched all the deleted scenes that are included on the Blu-ray (there’s another one available with the digital download that’s not available yet) and ranked them below in order of “deserved to be deleted” to “this should have been in the movie.” (Also, for those wondering, there’s still no sight of Constable Zuvio.)
(Also, yes, there will be deleted scene spoilers, if that’s even a thing.)
6. “Finn Will Be Fine”
When we left Finn at the end of The Force Awakens, his life was still hanging in the balance after losing a lightsaber fight to Kylo Ren. In this scene, Doctor Kalonia takes all the tension away by telling Rey, with a big smile, “You’re friend’s gonna be just fine” – using the same tone she used while patronizing Chewbacca. The Chewbacca scene was funny! Here, it doesn’t work and this deserved to be cut.
5. “Finn and the Villager”
Finn is still in full Stormtrooper gear at the beginning of the film and he comes across a fleeing villager. They stare at each other for a few seconds, then the villager runs off. It establishes that Finn is a good person, but there are already quite a few scenes that already do this, so we probably didn’t need another one.
4. “Jakku Message”
Here, we get an early Leia scene where she’s given information on Poe’s crash landing on Jakku. Basically that he’s missing and so is BB-8. Leia then says, “Never underestimate a droid.” It’s a good scene, but it might have taken away from Leia’s eventual introduction in the film when she sees Han.
3. “Snow Speeder Chase”
I was looking the most forward to this scene – there are toys based on it! – but left a little disappointed. There still seems to be a lot missing from it, as we only see Finn shooting at some Snowtroopers while Rey pilots a speeder. (The effects aren’t done, so some of it looks like a video game.) But there’s no lead up in this scene to explain why they are in this speeder in the first place, it’s just the action.
2. “X-Wings Prepare for Lightspeed”
The description of this short scene is exactly what you get: Shortly after the Falcon crashes on Starkiller Base, the Resistance X-Wings enter lightspeed. What this scene does is better establish the pilots. It’s a lot like in the original Star Wars when the pilots all check in, “Red Leader, standing by.” So, it does give us a better sense of who everyone is and would have worked well in the final film.
1. “Kylo Searches The Falcon”
I wish this scene was in the movie, for nothing else than seeing a closeup shot of the Falcon crashed in the snow. While Snowtroopers search the Falcon, Kylo Ren enters the cockpit and says, “Han Solo,” which he says a lot in this movie already. Whatever, this is a cool scene.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on April 5.
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
