Rian Johnson has revealed why he cut one of Luke Skywalker’s lessons for Rey inThe Last Jedi. The director shot and finished the CGI for the scene in question, but later decided to leave it out. Even two years after hitting theaters, Johnson is still either hailed for his take on theStar Warsfranchise or hated. The movie took expectations and shattered them, offering up something new in return that many people were not ready for.
Luke Skywalker is a hermit on Ahch-Towhen we’re reintroduced to him inThe Last Jedi. Rey has come, along with Chewbacca and R2-D2 to convince the Jedi to come back and fight with the Resistance. This version of Luke is far from the one that was last saw inReturn of the Jedi, but he reluctantly starts to provide Rey with the Jedi training that she needs. Two lessons made it into the movie, while the third was cut. When asked about the scene, which is included on the Blu-ray and Digital versions of the movie, Johnson gave his reasoning. He had this to say.
“Mostly pace, and something about it always felt a little repetitive, coming at a point in the movie where we want to hit the gas and start escalating towards the finale. I love the scene, it was a tough (but ultimately good) cut.”
The Last Jedi deleted scenein question has Luke Skywalker baiting Rey to see how she would react over the Caretakers being attacked. He insists a true Jedi would not act because it would not provide balance. However, Rey believes that they need help, so she races down to save them, only to find out that they’re having a celebration. She then realizes that Luke was testing her while Chewbacca and R2-D2 party with the Caretakers.
The scene would have fit in well withThe Last Jedi, but one can see why Rian Johnson decided to ditch it just in terms of the pace at that point in the movie. Most of the footage was shown in early promotional material for the movie, so some eagle-eyed fans were confused when it was not included in theaters. With that being said, there are someStar Warsfans who would gladly trade that particular scene for a shorteradventure on Canto Bight.
The Last Jedieditors Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey recently had some interesting things to say about the movie and Rian Johnson’s storytelling choices. Brandon gives the director credit for trying something new, while Markey basically calls him out for trying to “undo” the storytelling of the first movie. Both sentiments have been agreed upon byStar Warsfans over the last few years. Whatever the case may be, the sequel trilogy was always going to be divisive. You can check outRian Johnson’s Twitterresponse for cutting the Luke and Rey scene.
