'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Extended Cut: Not Even Maz Kanata's Eyes Will See It

If you've been paying attention to our extensive Star Wars coverage, then you probably saw our round-up of 20 scenes that were cut from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Those scenes would add plenty of footage to the movie, and some have wondered if we might get The Force Awakens extended cut, or dare I say, The Force Awakens: Special Edition. But according to director J.J. Abrams, that's not in the cards.

Over the weekend, J.J. Abrams appeared at the Television Critics Association press tour to promote the Bad Robot television series adaptation of Stephen King's time travel story 11.22.63 (which just debuted a new trailer), and he was asked about the potential for The Force Awakens extended cut. Abrams pretty definitively said (via EW):

"There will be deleted scenes, but not an extended version."

When it comes to scenes that are cut from movies, they're usually taken out for a good reason. While there are instances where extended or director's cuts are better than the theatrical version of the film, that usually only comes after studio interference or circumstances outside the control of the filmmaker. But in the case of The Force Awakens, Abrams was in complete control of his film, so the cut that we saw in theaters is the cut of the movie we wanted.

Still, there's a part of me that wants to see the original cut of the movie, especially what Abrams talked about the initial cut of the movie:

"I don't know what the longest cut was.Probably, if it were with credits, close to two hours and 50 minutes was the first cut."

Again, there's a reason that the movie was trimmed down by about 35 minutes, with a final cut of 2 hours and 16minutes, so seeing this extended cut might be a more clumsy version of the movie with awkward pacing. But we'll likely never know, and since most fans aren't exactly in love with the Special Editions of the original Star Wars trilogy, that's probably for the best.

But at least we'll get to see some of the deleted scenes when the Blu-Ray and DVD arrives later this year, reportedly on April 5th, though that date has yet to be confirmed. While there is a chance that these deleted scenes may provide some more insight into questions that fans have about The Force Awakens, or possibly hint at more of what's to come in Star Wars: Episode VIII, I don't think we're going to learn much from them.