Why exactly has Luke Skywalker gone into hiding? Who is Rey, really, and why did her parents abandon her on Jakku? What's up with Supreme Leader Snoke and his predilection for giant holograms? How would odd little pirate Maz Kanata fare in a fight against an army of Stormtroopers? These are just a few of the lingering questions left after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens … and while we will probably have to wait until Episode VIII (or maybe even Episode IX!) to learn the answers to most of them, the latter mystery promises to be solved by deleted scenes from The Force Awakens , due to hit shelves on Blu-Ray and DVD on April 5.
In anticipation of the impending home video release of the biggest cinema event of 2015, the studio released a teaser video on YouTube of clips from the deleted scenes, cut together in the style of a traditional movie trailer that pretty much advertises a version of the film we never saw. While that fact alone is probably enough to get any Star Wars fan's blood pumping, it's nothing compared to the shot that opens the teaser: Kylo Ren boarding the Millennium Falcon.
Why is this particular deleted scene so significant? Well, not only is it cool just to see the film's iconic villain standing on the deck of the franchise's most iconic spaceship (even though that is pretty cool), it's significant when you remember who Kylo Ren really is… Han Solo's son. He's not just standing in the Millennium Falcon; he's not even just standing in his dad's ship; he's standing in the ship that he grew up in. Han and "Ben" probably spent years zooming throughout the galaxy in the ole hunk o' junk, racing through asteroid fields and maybe going on a smuggling run or two and bonding the whole time.
When you think about the wealth of backstory behind that one simple shot of Kylo Ren, it becomes not just cool, but also a bit heartbreaking — and even more so when you realize it directly reflects the shot of Han re-entering the Falcon for the first time in TFA:
So when in the course of the film was this scene supposed to take place? When did Kylo Ren have the opportunity to board the Millennium Falcon? This additional shot from outside the ship reveals its location:
This is clearly after Han, Chewie, and Finn have crash-landed the Falcon on the surface of Starkiller Base to rescue Rey, save "Ben" from himself, and destroy the Base. It's unclear if this particular scene took place before or after Kylo killed Han, but I would hazard a guess as to this taking place before that fateful encounter. After "Ben" killed his dad, events proceeded pretty rapidly with him and Rey engaging in their lightsaber duel as the Base was crumbling around them — and it was dark by then, anyway. So while Han was searching for his son in the Base, Kylo must have been on the surface searching for his father in the Falcon.
Of course, this isn't the only deleted scene available on the Blu-Ray; other shots glimpsed in the teaser video include the aforementioned scene of Maz Kanata preparing to fight off an invasion of Stormtroopers, a glimpse of Rey standing in the Resistance headquarters, and what looks like Finn getting operated on by a droid. But none of these scenes hold a candle to the sight of Kylo Ren hunched over his father's pilot's chair in the Falcon for sheer poignancy:
I demand a time machine so that I can go back in time and convince J.J. Abrams to put this scene back in the original theatrical cut of The Force Awakens where it belongs. Or I guess I'll just settle for watching it over and over again when the Blu-Ray comes out next month.
Images: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Star Wars/YouTube (3); Giphy
