last jedi

Clocking in at a whopping 152 minutes (a franchise record), ‘The Last Jedi’ is an epic installment in a series for which there is perhaps no more fitting description. But would you believe it was very nearly longer than that? As we’ve reported previously, the film’s rough cut ran close to three full hours, and with that in mind, director Rian Johnson is promising a plethora of deleted scenes for the home video release.

With ‘The Last Jedi’ now in theaters, we’ve been able to get a clearer picture of just what those deleted scenes will entail. First and foremost, how much material are we talking about? Roughly twenty minutes, according to Johnson. The director promises that the Blu-ray will be loaded with deleted scenes, adding that while some incidental material has been held back, “all the good  stuff” will be included. In addition to this, Johnson also shared some highlights of the material that didn’t quite make it out of the editing bay.

First up, Rey’s time on Ach-To originally ran a bit longer, as she interacted with the island’s denizens:

“There’s an extended sequence with Rey and the caretakers, which are the Nun-like fish creatures. That’s actually one of the biggest things that was taken out of the movie.”

But it wasn’t all fun and games, as Rey also spent some more time with Luke Skywalker:

“And then on the island there’s a massive sequence that we shot with Daisy and Mark, which is kind of an additional sort of trial/test that she goes through, that involves her and Mark, and then a big emotional scene between the two of them. I mean, it’s big stuff, it’s like actual real scenes.”

There was also, it seems, a lot more to Finn and Rose’s infiltration of Snoke’s command ship than we saw:

“There’s a whole extended sequence where Finn and Rose and DJ sneak through the Mega Destroyer when they’re kind of, after they sneak in with DJ and they’re trying to find the tracker. There’s a whole extended sequence. It’s a full sequence of like stuff with them sneaking through this big office area of the Mega Destroyer and then having to fake out these Stormtroopers.”

And of course, there was more of everybody’s favorite ambiguously gay duo, Poe and Finn:

“There’s a couple of Finn scenes that – there’s one great Finn/Poe scene that’s kind of a set up scene at the beginning when Poe was kind of bringing Finn up to speed after he comes out of his coma. God, there’s a bunch of really fun stuff.”

Be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more news on ‘The Last Jedi’ and future ‘Star Wars’ films as it becomes available!

Directed by Rian Johnson, ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ is now playing in theaters. The film stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Domhnall Gleeson, and Gwendoline Christie.