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Rogue One’s Lighter Alternate Ending Revealed


Those who haven't seen Rogue One yet ought to keep away because this piece is going to discus one of the most important parts of the film – the very end.

Those who've already seen Gareth Edward's Star Wars spinoff film know how the heartbreaking finish to Rogue One goes– after retrieving the Death Star plans Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and her squad all die, giving the film a poignant and dramatic ending.

It's a powerful finish, however it seems like the film's production team were all anxious that Disney would deny the character deaths, so the film's writer Gary Whitta, decided to prepare an alternate ending for the film.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Whitta revealed the alternate ending for the film:

"They got away in an escape pod just in time," Whitta said. "The pod looked like just another piece of debris … The transfer of the plans happened later. They jumped away and later [Leia's] ship came in from Alderaan to help them. The ship-to-ship data transfer happened off Scarif."

However, the Whitta always intended for the group to die, saying that it was essential to the film.

"The original instinct was that they should all die. It's worth it. If you're going to give your life for anything, give your life for this, to destroy a weapon that going to kill you all anyway."

"You have the darkness that's in the undercurrent of the story at that point, but you still have the rightness of why they're doing it," says director Gareth Edwards. "It doesn't feel depressing. It feels like you want them to succeed at any cost. It's a sport where the clock is ticking, and they need to just dive across the finish line. You do whatever you need to do to get there. It's a gauntlet that they're handing to Princess Leia. You get that moment where the crowd feels like it can cheer at the end."

"We were still scratching the itch that they all needed to die. Chris Weitz [who wrote another draft] thought we were right," Whitta says. "They finally went off and fought for it. We told them, we feel they all need to die, and [Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy] and everyone else said to go for it. We got the ending that we wanted."

As heartbreaking as it is, Lucasfilm made the right choice by allowing Rogue One it's grim end. Though it doesn't leave room for another adventure with the same characters, it does make the film more meaningful.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story gets a Digital HD release on March 24.

Read: Rogue One Director Jealous Of Han Solo Spinoff

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