Deleted scenes are generally cut from movies with good reason, and this one is honestly no different, but I still wish the idea behind it could have found a way into Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Making its debut on The Star Wars Show, the above deleted scene (at about 1:37) features Finn bringing up a moment from Phasma’s short-lived appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Moments from being gunned down by a ring of Stormtroopers (that is if they don’t all shoot each other by accident, which has probably at least a 70% chance), he reminds her that when her life was on the line, she wasn’t ready to lay it down to protect her cause.
She brushes it off, but it’s just enough to sow doubts in the minds of her troops and make them hesitate, resulting in Phasma taking them out herself and giving Finn the opportunity to win the battle. The scene is a bit clunky, and I see why it was removed, but I wish it couldn’t been reworked and shortened instead, because it provides some pretty fulfilling material.
Not only does it give us a bit more interplay between Finn and Phasma and tie together her limited role in a satisfying way, but it follows along with Finn’s own history of putting the idea of real people behind the faceless Stormtrooper army. He’s gone from running scared to laying down his own life and exposing Phasma for being just as much a coward as all bullies, swaying other Stormtroopers to question her leadership, just like he did.
(image: Disney/Lucasfilm)
In a movie that was so focused on its characters—and, for some, didn’t satisfyingly develop them with respect to their introduction in The Force Awakens—it’s kind of a shame that this got lost along the way.
(featured image: screengrab)
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