Rogue One's Best Scene Was A Reshoot

We've known for a while now that a lot of the third act of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had been reworked thanks to the extensive reshoots. The geography of that final battle on Scarif including the fates of our main characters was almost entirely changed. So it shouldn't come as much of a shock to learn that the awesome final Darth Vader scene in Rogue One was a reshoot. Details after the jump.

The final scenes of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story involve Vader's flagship attacking the Rebel fleet as they prepare to jump to hyperspace. 'in his pursuit of the Death Star plans, Darth Vader boards the command ship and expertly kills several soldiers using his lightsaber and force powers. But a small starship escapes with them on board, and it is revealed that Princess Leia is aboard this ship. She is given the Death Star plans and declares that the data files will provide hope for the Rebellion.

Rogue One editor John Gilroy revealed in an interview with Yahoo! Movies that the final Darth Vader action sequence was a product of the reshoots that took place last summer:

"What was added — and it was a fantastic add — was the Vader action scene, with him boarding the ship and dispatching all those rebel soldiers. That was something conceptualized a little later."

But how can that be? Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo said last month that the ending of Rogue One "never changed."

Pablo further clarifies later in the same twitter thread that "By ending I meant the last scene, not the last act." So if we take his word for it, which I agree we should, this probably means that the final scene of the movie never changed: Princess Leia being presented with the Death Star plans and declaring hope for the Rebellion.

Also remember that director Gareth Edwards' filmed a cameo as the rebel soldier who disengages the Tantive IV from Admiral Raddus' ship. This appears to be from the original shoot and not the reshoots. So it's likely that the original cut of the film did still have Vader did board Admiral Raddus' ship, leading to the Tantive IV escape. It seems as if the reshoot added this new Vader scene to make it a more action packed thrilling sequence.

The Rogue One Darth Vader ending scene is most people's favorite sequence in the film. I think this is definitive proof that the movie was improved through the reshoot process. Remember when I wrote about "Why movie reshoots aren't necessarily a bad thing?"

Even though we know, Disney improved the film with the reshoots, I'm still curious about the original cut of the film. We still don't know a lot about the original third act of the movie. It's clear that the geography of the battle on Scarif was drastically changed with the data vault and the citadel tower initially being two different locations. And it appears that initially the Rogue One team did not split up, making their siege through the AT-ACT's towards the citadel tower. Earlier this week we saw footage that appears to show K-2SO and Cassian Andor being killed outside the entrance to the tower, allowing Jyn Erso to complete her mission.

The Rogue One trailers featured footage of Commander Krennic walking on a battle-torn beach, with his beautiful white cape in the foot deep water.Is it possible that Krennic was the one that killed them before making his way up the Citadel tower to stop Jyn? There have also been rumors that Darth Vader initially made an appearance on the beach, killing some of our heroes, but I have yet to see any real evidence of this.