The screenwriter behind box office smash-hit Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has revealed that he thought the film's finale would be different - and far less heartbreaking - than how it turned out.
Warning: Spoilers follow, obviously.
At the end of the film, almost all of the main protagonists die in the process of getting the schematics for the Death Star which would allow the Rebel Alliance to locate and exploit a secret vulnerability built into the ship.
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Gary Whitta said while he had always envisaged the bloodbath would occur, and it was his "original instinct", he hadn't expected all of Rogue One's various stakeholders to agree to it.
"I never believed that they would let us kill off all the characters in the film," Whitta told ComicBook.com.
"The very first meeting with [Rogue One director] Gareth [Edwards] I remember saying, 'I kind of feel like they all need to die, but there's no way [Star Wars founder George] Lucas - there's no way Disney - will let us do that. We can't kill everybody - it's a Disney movie.'
"And yet, they were fully supportive of it, and it's actually one of the coolest things about the film."
Whitta said in their original script, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) were supposed to escape on a rebel ship - but he said the ending that was agreed to was the best choice.
"It's the biggest kind of emotional punch that I think the movie has. I'm so glad that they supported that decision," he said.
Newshub.
