In 20015's Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, we finally learned what led to Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader, and the former Jedi marching into the Jedi Temple to kill his old friends remains one of the franchise's most harrowing moments. However, it could have been even darker.
While we see Anakin approach the Jedi Younglings before igniting his lightsaber, it's left up to the viewer to try and avoid imagining what came next. However, we know he slaughtered those children at the behest of his new Master, Emperor Palpatine, hence why Obi-Wan Kenobi is left with no other choice but to do what he must to put his former Padawan down.
During a recent interview with Star Wars Theory (via SFFGazette.com), prequel trilogy stunt coordinator Nick Gillard revealed that the scene we saw in the hologram watched by Obi-Wan and Yoda was actually shot...and cut by George Lucas for being too violent!
"It's violent. When we did it, we wanted it to be really violent because it's [Anakin], you know, it's Order 66," he recalls. "I think I parry the first blow straight into the kid's throat, you know, which is awful - it goes straight in his throat. [Anakin] grabs the other girl and chokes her, I think he ends up cutting her as well."
"But when we shot it, we shot it full-figure, and George [Lucas] went, 'Oh dear, that's really violent,' and when I saw it at a movie it was shrunk down."
While we're sure a lot of you will be disappointed this didn't make it into the movie, Revenge of the Sith was dark enough without showing us what Anakin did in such an explicitly violent manner.
It might have also led to issues with censors (the franchise has always been PG-13), but we do wish the sequence has at least been shared as a deleted scene!
However, with Hayden Christensen set to return in Ahsoka and The Mandalorian season 3 clearly planning to reveal more about the night of Order 66 and Grogu's role in that, we may yet get to see more of what Darth Vader did that fateful night...plus, Obi-Wan Kenobi showed him killing some of those poor Younglings!