We’ll try to keep this relatively spoiler-free. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (our review here) was filled with hidden celebrity cameos for fans to suss out, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Carrie Fisher’s dog Gary as aliens on Canto Bight, Mark Hamill in a second role (other members of Hamill’s family also had cameos), Edgar and Oscar Wright as Crait Resistance fighters, and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards as a Resistance trench soldier. And now we know a little more about the long rumored Tom Hardy cameo that was left on the cutting room floor.
The Last Jedi‘s Blu-ray will include 20 minutes of deleted scenes, presumably including Hardy’s scene. We already knew he likely played a stormtrooper in a scene alongside John Boyega, with other stormtroopers played by Prince William, Prince Harry, and Take That lead singer Gary Barlow.
Earlier this week, Hardy confirmed his stormtrooper cameo, revealing a still photo from his deleted scene on his Instagram. He’s deleted the picture since then, but a fan account had already mirrored it:
Though the other faces are covered, that does look like Boyega in the background in his First Order officer disguise when he, Rose Tico, and Benicio del Toro’s character go undercover on a First Order ship. Now /film reveals what happens in that deleted scene, and it’s in line with the rumors about Hardy’s cameo. The scene takes place just after the part left in the movie where Finn and the others are in First Order disguises and trying to make it to an elevator without being spotted.
A group of stormtroopers get in the elevator and our heroes are nervous they are going to get caught. One of the stormtroopers slowly turns to Finn and gives him a look. Finn turns around in his Imperial officer uniform and asks him what his problem is. The stormtrooper, played by Hardy with a southern accent, says “I know who you are… FN 2187! Damn boy, I never took you for officer material!” The tension is cut by the reveal that the two grew up together, but the troopers are somehow unaware of FN’s treason. While Finn’s act of desertion is a legend in the Resistance, maybe the First Order hid that information from their army so others might not get the same idea.
Wait, so they had Tom Hardy for a cameo, and he was doing a southern accent, but they left it out of the movie? That’s table-flipping ridiculous. (╯° °）╯︵ ┻━┻
(Via [these sources contain spoilers] /film, Vanity Fair, and ONTD)