Unseen Star Wars Moments Finally Get Their Visual Due

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Unseen Star WarsMost movie scripts have material that doesn’t wind up in the final movie. Some of these are filmed, but left out for a variety of reasons—hence the booming deleted scenes market on home video—others are aren’t even shot, and still more aren’t filmed, but the finished product references them in some way. George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy has some of all three, including some key moments that happen off screen. Artist Robert Shane has taken three of these, one from each movie, and put his own personal spin on them, and the result is fantastic.

First up is the scene from A New Hope where Uncle Owen and Aunt Baru, the only family Luke Skywalker has left in the entire universe, buy the metaphorical farm at the hands of Imperial bad guys. This has so much more impact the way the film deals with it. Instead of seeing it happen, we witness the hero’s reaction to a tragedy that is the launching pad for three movies worth of adventures. Here’s what Shane says about this piece:

We all know that Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were executed in Episode 4 (A New Hope) – and the grizzly revolution was pivotal in convincing Luke to begin his heroic journey. We didn’t see actual the event – and we didn’t need to (especially in a ‘kids’ movie) – but I thought it would be cool to imagine how it might have played out… especially if it had introduced us to Boba Fett’s character!

Unseen Star WarsThe offering from Empire Strikes Back is one that was partially completed, but due to limitations on the special effects at the time, they had to abandon it. Too bad, because who doesn’t want more Wampa, especially when they’re on a rampage?

There was a scene filmed for Empire Strikes Back that featured a Wampa that R2-D2 and C-3PO locked in a room at Echo Base being discovered by Snowtroopers… that scene wasn’t completed because of the limitations of the animatics for the Wampa. So what I’ve done here is imagined how – if they’d been able to produce a better looking Wampa – they could have used it to (temporarily) terrorize the advancing Imperials!

Unseen Star WarsReturn of the Jedi had another partially completed scene, one that perhaps could have foreshadowed Darth Vader’s ultimate redemption. While that sounds appealing hinting at his potential humanity too early, or too often in the film could lessen the impact of the final reveal.

There was a scene filmed, but not completed, for Return of the Jedi (apparently as a joke) – showing the Imperial Guard using their force pikes to execute Moff Jerjerrod for slacking with his job of building the second Death Star. I thought that scene, if it had been used, could have actually been important in demonstrating Darth Vader’s wavering devotion to his Emperor. The way I imagine it – the Emperor orders his guards to execute the hapless Moff – but Vader actually protests – and tries to remind the Emperor that this was a loyal soldier who delivered a functional Death Star. I think this would be consistent with Vader’s old appreciation, as Anakin, for his troops – and would start to sow the seeds for his eventual redemption at the end of the movie!