In the thrilling final moments of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, audiences witnessed the unbridled might of Darth Vader as he ignited his red lightsaber to slaughter Rebel soldiers in a last-ditch attempt to recover the Death Star plans. While everyone knows Vader's failure was inevitable, Star Wars fans have hailed the scene as one of the best in the series, especially after Vader's origin story was fairly bungled in George Lucas's prequel trilogy.
As it turns out, the scene was part of the film's extensive reshoots; editor John Gilroy revealed to Yahoo that the scene was added to the film later down the line. “What was added — and it was a fantastic add — was the Vader action scene, with him boarding the ship and dispatching all those rebel soldiers. That was something conceptualized a little later.”
Gilroy confirmed that the general narrative plan was always to have Vader in rapid pursuit of the plans once they left Scarif (in order to align the film with A New Hope) but the production team wanted to give the Sith Lord a chance to reclaim his former villainous glory onscreen. “It was a really great punch in the arm and something I think fans wanted to see,” he said.
Needless to say, this was probably one of the better decisions made for the film. Are you glad this scene was added in reshoots? Sound off below!