In a movie as expansive as The Last Jedi, the editing room is going to be filled with hard choices. Rian Johnson’s first cut of the film was reportedly over three hours long, and with the theatrical release weighing in at a slim two-and-a-half hours, that means about 40 minutes of material got axed. About half of that will be showing up in DVD extras, and /Film has a rundown of what viewers didn’t see in deleted scenes. For example, there was almost a nude alien in a bathhouse in the Canto Bight casino, and Rose Tico was originally framed as more outwardly jealous of Finn and Rey’s bond (like a Resistance hero would ever get caught up in such petty squabbles). Most importantly, though, is the scrapped party thrown by the Caretakers on Ahch-To, Luke’s very own Jedi Fortress of Solitude.
The scene started out with Rey seeing a fire across the island, and Luke telling her that it’s from a group of bandits that regularly raids and slaughters the Caretakers — which is extremely horrible and very much not a beach party! Rey, in horror, says she’s going to save them, and Luke tells her that a true Jedi would leave it alone and allow the natural balance of the universe to claim the very judgmental but ultimately defenseless fish-nuns. Rey then effectively says “Screw that!” and with the help of an extra-fast “Force-powered run,” she rushes to the Caretaker village, bursts through a door with her lightsaber swinging, and finds the little dinosaur creatures waving glow sticks and having a raucous bonfire party with R2-D2 (wearing a “festive necklace”), Chewie, and a bunch of porgs in attendance. Ultimately, Luke’s macabre joke was a test to see if Rey had what it takes to be a new kind of Jedi, the kind of Jedi that doesn’t chalk up Caretaker slaughter to “balance” and actually intervenes for the forces of good. When Rey breaks down in tears, Luke realizes that he went too far, and the scene was ultimately scrapped because it made Luke look like an almost irredeemable asshole. That, and anyone who heard “Caretaker slaughter” would be within their rights to leave the theater straightaway before they even had a chance to find out what was really going on.
