Remember back in 1977 in Star Wars: A New Hope, when Han Solo warned C-3PO against antagonising Chewbacca due to the fact that wookiees were renowned for being able to rip people’s arms from out of their sockets? Well, turns out that he wasn’t exaggerating, as emphasised by this much talked-about deleted scene from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
In it, a vengeful Unkar Plutt (Simon Pegg) manages to intercept Rey (Daisy Ridley) in Maz Kanata’s palace on Takodana – presumably as revenge for destroying a load of his stuff and stealing the Millennium Falcon while escaping from Jakku. Unaware of her power at this point, she looks in trouble – until Chewbacca shows up.
Unwisely, Plutt decides to mock and prod at the wookiee on his bad arm. Big mistake. Cue his arm being wrenched off and lobbed across the room.
Although it’s another ‘nice’ nod to a much remarked-upon piece of dialogue from the saga, we can see why it was cut. Although Star Wars is no stranger to sudden scenes of violence, the cracking sound as the arm is ripped out may have been a bit much.
Still, at least we’ve seen it now – only half the scene was included in the most recent home entertainment release. Moreover, it does beg the question of whether more similarly curtailed scenes are out there. For instance, maybe there’s a longer version of Rey’s vision? We definitely can’t believe that this was the only Knights of Ren footage shot.
In any case, we’ll see more of everyone in Star Wars: Episode VIII, which sees Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, Gwendoline Christie and Lupita Nyong’o reprise their roles, with Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran joining the cast.
Star Wars: Episode VIII will be released in cinemas on 15 December 2017. For all the latest movie news, pick up the new issue of SciFiNow.
