Rogue One's Original Ending Revealed

"The fact that we had to jump through so many hoops to keep them alive was the writing gods telling us that if they were meant to live it wouldn’t be this difficult."

By Evan Campbell

Spoilers for Rogue One ahead. 

Jyn Erso's fate wasn't always fatal in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Speaking with EW, Gary Whitta — who co-wrote Rogue One's story — discussed the original, happier ending for the Star Wars film. He explained that even though the plan always was to kill off the entire crew, they were worried Disney wouldn't approve of such a dark storyline.

So with that in mind, Whitta went about devising another narrative for Rogue One, in which Bodhi Rook, Chirrut Imwe, and Baze Malbus didn't exist. Meanwhile, Erso was a Rebel sergeant instead of an imprisoned criminal.

"In fact, some of the toys that are sold still say Sgt. Jyn Erso," said Whitta. “... By the time we changed that, some of the toys were already in production."

Erso would survive the Scariff assault in Rogue One's original ending, along with Cassian Andor (though he had a different name back then). And they would actually take the plans off of Scariff instead of beaming them up.

"A rebel ship came down and got them off the surface," Whitta said. "The transfer of the plans happened later. They jumped away and later [Leia’s] ship came in from Alderaan to help them. The ship-to-ship data transfer happened off Scarif."

Darth Vader would still appear, this time destroying Erso's ship. But she would use an escape pod, surviving with Cassian at the end.

In fact, the reveal would echo Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon's getaway from a Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back. Similar to how they hid among garbage, Erso and Cassian would camoflouge themselves through the wreckage of the ship.

But to be clear, Whitta and the rest of the creative team — like director Gareth Edwards — were never sold on this version.

“The fact that we had to jump through so many hoops to keep them alive was the writing gods telling us that if they were meant to live it wouldn’t be this difficult,” said Whitta. “We decided they should die on the surface [of Scarif,] and that was the way it ended."

Evan Campbell is a freelance writer who scripts the Daily Fix, streams games on his Twitch channel, and chats about movies and TV serieson Twitter.

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