We've always known that George Lucas was making up Star Wars as he went along. While the legendary filmmaker certainly had a rough plan in place for what he once planned to be a nine-part story, his stories were fluid, often changing before, during, and after shooting.
Now, resurfaced concept art from 2005's Revenge of the Sith (via SFFGazette.com) reveals that there was a version of the movie's ending which would have seen Natalie Portman's Padmé Amidala attempt to end the life of Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.
This was obviously going to place after his fall to the Dark Side and is a moment concept artist Iain McCaig elaborated on back in 2017.
"Padmé can see that he is becoming a monster," he said, revealing she was the one who started forming the Rebellion before arriving on Mustafar where "she has a knife in her hand."
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While she planned to literally and figuratively stab the former Jedi now known as Darth Vader in the back (or throat), McCaig added, "She loves him too much to stop him, even when he’s become the monster."
Padmé attempting to kill Anakin would perhaps explain why he chose to attack her with the Force, though the fact he'd fallen far enough to do that without coming under any sort of physical threat makes the moment even more harrowing. Still, giving the former Queen a little more to do in Episode III would have been no bad thing.
In the movie's final cut, Padmé dies from a broken heart during childbirth and tells Obi-Wan Kenobi she believes there's still good in Anakin shortly before dying. Vader, meanwhile, doesn't learn his children are still alive until decades later.
Check out this Revenge of the Sith concept art in the Tweet below.