By now, everyone has had a chance to see Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. The movie already has a number of us excited for what’s to come in the Star Wars cinematic universe, but it’ll take some time for us to forget the film that re-launched our love for the galaxy far, far away. The Force Awakens is back in public conversation after the release of the 2016 Oscar nominations. Some may be peeved that Episode VII didn’t crack the Best Picture list, but let’s face it - none of us actually expected that to happen. Star Wars 7 did collect a number of nominations, however, including Best Film Editing, which is questionable considering an awesome scene J.J. Abrams and co. left out.
In a recent interview with Collider, SFX supervisor Chris Corbould revealed that a certain scene featuring Lupita Nyong’o’s Maz Kanata didn’t make the final cut. In said scene, Maz Kanata uses her “powers” to prevent a bunch of Stormtroopers from destroying her in the castle. Take a look at what he had to say:
"There was a particular part of a scene that never made it, where they go underneath the castle and they’re going into the underground passageways, and Stormtroopers are coming down the stairs and Maz uses her powers to collapse the ceiling. From my point of view, [that] worked absolutely brilliantly because you had all the main actors running up and then Maz does her bit and then the whole ceiling collapses in front of them, but that never made it. That was a shot I was quite proud of, actually, it worked really, really well."
This is quite an interesting revelation, considering no one in the Star Wars galaxy has demonstrated those kind of capabilities outside of the Jedi or Sith. Maz Kanata even says herself, “"I am no Jedi, but I do know the Force." She wasn’t bluffing, as that deleted scene clearly shows some Force-like abilities. What do we call someone who can use the Force but doesn’t identify as a Jedi or Sith? The fact that she also was in possession of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber is also pretty intriguing. Could there be a Maz Kanata reveal somewhere down the line in Episode VIII or IX?
For now, we’ll have to leave that up to speculation. It’s not even known whether Lupita Nyong’o will return as Maz Kanata for Episode VIII. If there’s any consolation, maybe J.J. Abrams will release the deleted scene in the special features section of the Blu-ray/DVD.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens is now playing in theaters.
