Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s home release will include a ridiculous amount of deleted scenes
By Buckie Wells
When Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits Blu-ray on March 27, it will contain 14 deleted scenes, and some of us really want to know why there’s so many.
Rian Johnson made Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and he wants you to know how and why he made the creative decisions that shaped the movie. He wants to be vindicated. Basically, he wants the audience to see what he envisioned and be satisfied with the outcome.
In addition to containing a reported 14 deleted scenes, they all include an introduction and commentary by Rian Johnson … which just seems so desperate. Absolutely, he can just love and enjoy Star Wars; this could just be another example of his passion. But that’s not the picture his responses painted in the past.
Most of the time, the director cuts a scene to save time. Ahead of the film’s release, we knew it would be the longest. So, let’s say each deleted scene varies between 30 seconds and one minute. We can assume there’s about 10-14 minutes of additional footage, which is ample time to change the course of the film.
Recently, we saw our first looks at Rey’s third trial on Ahch-To. We learned the scene was cut because it made Luke Skywalker seem like too much of a jerk. But considering the final outcome, adding 14 deleted scenes into the context of an already muddled film that’s nothing if not open to interpretation seems ill-advised. Just as all the arguments seem to have died down, here comes Lucasfilm to reignite those hot takes.
So, people will either A) enjoy the deleted scenes and realize they would’ve made the theatrical release so much better, or B) look at them and realize that we were spared from some even weirder stuff besides milking space animals.
Either way, it reinforces the idea that Rian Johnson didn’t deliver the best film possible.
If all the deleted scenes are magical and give us a lot of insight into the film, then they should’ve been in the final cut. As noted before, Johnson struggled with time management. We know this already and don’t need to keep talking about it, especially when we could be focusing on Solo: A Star Wars Story instead.
According to reports, here’s what we can find in The Last Jedi‘s bonus features:
"The Director and the Jedi – Go deep behind the scenes with writer-director Rian Johnson on an intimate and personal journey through the production of the movie—and experience what it’s like to helm a global franchise and cultural phenomenon.Balance of the Force – Explore the mythology of the Force and why Rian Johnson chose to interpret its role in such a unique way.Scene BreakdownsLighting the Spark: Creating the Space Battle – Get a close-up look at the epic space battle, from the sounds that help propel the action, through the practical and visual effects, to the characters who bring it all to life.Snoke and Mirrors – Motion capture and Star Wars collide as the filmmakers take us through the detailed process of creating the movie’s malevolent master villain.Showdown on Crait – Break down everything that went into creating the stunning world seen in the movie’s final confrontation, including the interplay between real-word locations and visual effects, reimagining the walkers, designing the crystal foxes, and much more.Andy Serkis Live! (One Night Only) – Writer-director Rian Johnson presents two exclusive sequences from the movie featuring Andy Serkis’ riveting, raw on-set performance before his digital makeover into Snoke.Deleted Scenes – With an introduction and optional commentary by writer-director Rian Johnson.Audio Commentary – View the movie with in-depth feature audio commentary by writer-director Rian Johnson."
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Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be released digitally on March 13. On March 27, the Blu-ray edition hits shelves.