It’s always interesting to see how movies consider specific ideas during the development process. Be that specific scenes or characters that are excluded, some movies look much different on script than they do on the big screen. One such movie is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which apparently included a young Luke Skywalker in Rey’s flashback scene before he was cut from the movie.
When The Force Awakens hit theaters in 2015, it was greeted with a warm embrace as a refreshing return to the Star Wars universe. About the only thing fans didn’t enjoy was how many teases director J.J. Abrams included without any payoff.
One such tease that was ultimately cut was an appearance by a young Luke Skywalker when Rey experiences a “Force Vision” upon first touching Luke’s Lightsaber. Actor Robert Boulter portrays the young Luke and a leaked image on Reddit reveals exactly what he would have looked like.
Rey’s "Force Vision" in THE FORCE AWAKENS originally included Luke & Vader's duel from The Empire Strikes Back. The scene was cut but thanks to Reddit, we're finally getting our first look at what ESB Luke would have looked like in TFA, played by Robert Boulter. Wild stuff. pic.twitter.com/oMWl7cM72Q
— Adam Frazier (@AdamFrazier) November 26, 2018
Boulter seems to be Luke circa Empire Strikes Back when he’s battling Darth Vader just before he gets his hand chopped off. He’s a dead ringer for the Jedi. It also finally links up the reports that revealed Boulter had been cast as Luke before The Force Awakens entered production.
It’s unclear why Abrams decided to cut the scene. Including Luke in the movie would have been a strong tie to the original trilogy. However, it could have overshadowed the new cast of characters the movie was focusing on.
