When it comes to massive Hollywood blockbusters, oftentimes the studio and the filmmakers want to keep some mystery to the magic. It’s no secret that a movie’s form can change drastically throughout production and post-production, and significant alterations can be made late in the game through reshoots and additional photography. But most of the time, everyone involved would like to keep that under wraps and simply present the finished film as-is.

That’s not the case with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which maybe didn’t go through significant alterations in post-production but did have its share of changes. The Blu-ray release of the film includes nearly 30 minutes of deleted scenes, including two entire sequences that were removed from the movie. They’re all laid bare on the home video release, complete with an introduction by writer/director Rian Johnson as well as optional audio commentary on each.

With Star Wars: The Last Jedi hitting 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 27th, I’ve gone through all the deleted scenes to provide a bit of a rundown. Now it’s more fun to actually watch these rather than read about them, so my synopsis of each will be brief. This is more about whether these deleted scenes deserved to be removed, or if the film would’ve been better had they been left intact.

So with that, let’s dive into the Last Jedi deleted scenes.

Alternate Opening

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This is an alternate opening to the film, in which the story begins with Finn (John Boyega) waking up in his healing tube and walking around the base in his water suit.

Do We Miss It?: Nope. While portions of this scene remain in the movie, it’s an odd way to kick things off and lacks the momentum of the final opening scene, which instead gets us right into the action of one of the film’s best set pieces. This one’s fine on the cutting room floor.

Paige’s Gun Jams

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This was a casualty of the alternate opening scene being removed, as it offered a different introduction to Rose’s sister Paige Tico. It’s incredibly brief.

Do We Miss It?: No. Johnson eventually settled on introducing the bombers later into the opening set piece, and Paige’s final introduction is far more impactful.

Luke Has a Moment

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This scene takes place shortly after Rey arrives at Luke’s hideout, and shows Luke going into his hut alone to quietly grieve Han Solo’s death.

Do We Miss It?: Kinda yeah. While the scene itself doesn’t make sense in the context of the finished film since Johnson decided to alter the narrative structure of the storylines a bit, Mark Hamill gives a wonderful performance here and we do finally get a moment to watch Luke grieve the death of his best friend. Again, it doesn’t really fit into the final cut of the movie so it’s understandable why it was cut, but it’s a really nice moment.

Poe: Not Much of a Sewer

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This is a connective tissue scene between Finn and Poe (Oscar Isaac) towards the beginning of the film, in which Poe gives Finn his jacket back and reveals that he sewed up the jacket himself. Cue swooning from Poe/Finn shippers.

Do We Miss It?: Yes. While there’s really no narrative reason for this scene to exist, it’s a really nice beat between Finn and Poe in a movie that doesn’t give them a ton of time together. The gesture of Poe sewing up Finn’s jacket speaks volumes to their relationship.

It’s Kind of Weird That You Recorded That

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: Finn is sad and looking at the locator beacon when BB-8 shows him a recorded video of Rey telling an unconscious Finn that she’ll see him again. This scene was meant to sell Finn’s decision to abandon ship and go find Rey. 

Do We Miss It?: Despite a pretty great punchline, not really. It’s not needed, as we already understand why Finn wants to leave, and you can easily feel how this would have slowed down the pacing of an already lengthy movie.

The Caretaker Sizes Up Rey

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: One of the caretakers gives Rey a dirty look.

Do We Miss It?: Nope. It’s funny, but it’s a bit digressional.

Caretaker Village Sequence

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This is one of two whole sequences that were cut out of the movie, and it took place right before the scene where Rey and Kylo interact and Luke catches them. Rey sees ships sailing into the caretaker village, which Luke tells her are raiders. She says she has to go save them, to which Luke replies that’ll only make matters worse. She ignores his warning, only to discover the caretakers are just havin’ a dance party. Luke was foolin’.

Do We Miss It?: No. This one also feels unnecessary, even if the caretaker dance party scene is really funny and a great showcase of the creature effects work. We already understand why Rey is unhappy with Luke, so we didn’t need yet another reason for her to get mad at him. Again, the movie is long enough, so this feels superfluous.

Extended Fathier Chase

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This is the very first original version of the Fathier chase sequence, which was originally much longer.

Do We Miss It?: Definitely not. As someone who loves The Last Jedi, I can say quite confidently the Fathier chase is the one point of the movie where it starts to drag. It’s just uninteresting, visually and otherwise, and it lacks much drive because we kind of already know where this is going. Johnson made the right call in shortening the whole sequence, and even then it feels kind of long.

Mega Destroyer Incursion – Extended Version

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This is an extended version of the sequence where Finn (Boyega), Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), and DJ (Benicio Del Toro) sneak onto the Mega Destroyer. They escape a snoopy First Order commander (played by The Witch’s Ralph Ineson) only to find themselves locked in an elevator with stoomtroopers, one of whom recognizes Finn.

Do We Miss It?: Yes. This is one of the funniest scenes in the entire movie, and I’m 99% sure the stormtrooper interacting with Finn on the elevator is Tom Hardy (which means the other stormtroopers in the scene are Prince Harry and Prince William). It’s a scene that begins incredibly tense, and ends with a really funny punchline and a hilarious performance from Hardy.

Rose Bites the Hand That Taunts Her

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: Rose literally bites Hux’s hand after she and Finn are captured.

Do We Miss It?: Nope. It’s unnecessary and a little weird.

Phasma Squealed Like a Whoop Hog

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This is an alternate version of Phasma’s death sequence, in which Finn threatens to out her cowardice from her actions in The Force Awakens to the surrounding stormtroopers.

Do We Miss It?: No. The performance from Boyega, in the context of the sequence, feels kind of off to be honest. It’s as if everything slows down so Finn and Phasma can have a chat, which doesn’t jibe with the increased tension of what’s going on in the film at this point in time. And Phasma turning coward all of a sudden lessens her impact, so the new altercation (which was shot during reshoots) is far superior.

Rose & Finn Go to Where They Belong

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Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

What’s Happening?: Rose and Finn have an extra beat after they escape the Star Destroyer

Do We Miss It?: Not really. It’s a nice moment and it puts a bow on the duo’s whole Canto Bight adventure together, but it feels like it could have easily messed with the pacing of the movie as a whole at that point.

Rey & Chewie in the Falcon

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Image via Lucasfilm

What’s Happening?: This is a very brief dialogue exchange between Rey and Chew during the battle on Crait.

Do We Miss It?: It’s so short I honestly could not have told you if it was or wasn’t in the movie to begin with, so I guess the answer is no.

Note: The Deleted Scenes section of the Blu-ray also includes a clip titled “The Costumes and Creatures of Canto Bight.” This is not a scene, but instead a sequence of footage showing off the incredible creatures and costumes from the casino scene.

For more on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, peruse our recent links below:

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Image via Disney/Lucasfilm