The Rise of Skywalker Left a Lot of C-3PO Scenes on the Cutting Room Floor
With the decade-spanning Skywalker Saga now all wrapped up thanks to director J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker, some of the stars are looking back and wondering whether they were given enough screentime. In the case of C-3PO, he was barely given anything to do in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, making it particularly notable when he was given an expanded presence in last year’s The Rise of Skywalker. As it turns out though, everyone’s favorite irritating, neurotic droid could have had an even bigger role than what we saw in theaters, according to C-3PO actor himself Anthony Daniels.
“There’s an awful lot of editing after you’ve finished filming, so C-3PO’s role was even sweeter and broader than that.”
This was the actor’s response when asked about the character’s trimmed screen time and whether he went into the movie with a similar mentality as when the droid was saying goodbye to his friends.
For those who perhaps need a recap on the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, C-3PO accompanied Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Chewbacca and BB-8 on their mission to find the Sith Wayfinder, the artifact which would direct them to Palpatine. Our heroes eventually find a different historical MacGuffin, a Sith dagger inscribed with Sith text, which C-3PO is capable of translating. However, his programming prevents him from saying the translation.
In order to get around this, the team bypasses C-3PO’s protocols using a slicer, which results in him losing his memories. It is an incredibly poignant moment amongst the nonstop action that makes up the majority of The Rise of Skywalker, but is instantly undone by R2-D2 who simply uses an earlier backup to reboot C-3PO.
So C-3PO’s role in the last movie of the new trilogy is certainly not inconsequential, but as Anthony Daniels lays out, there was a fair amount left on the cutting room floor, including more scenes between C-3PO and Poe Dameron which had to be cut due to the sheer amount of story that needed to be covered.
“But some of those niceties have to go because there’s so much in that film already, it’s almost two films in one, as you know. I’m a little sad about that, particularly his relationship with Poe, played by the wonderful Oscar Isaac. That was just so sweet and so funny, because Poe was always kind of irritated by C-3PO, but in a nice way.”
While it is true that The Rise of Skywalker covers a lot of ground, it would have been fitting to give C-3PO more screentime considering he has been with audiences since the very beginning of the franchise.
As for whether we’ll see C-3PO in the Star Wars franchise again, Anthony Daniels doubts it will happen in a Star Wars movie since the Skywalker Saga has “rightly” ended and there’s “plenty of galaxy yet to be explored.” With a galaxy far, far away sure to be explored further on the likes of Disney Plus, it is very possible that we will see the golden droid again. This comes to us from IGN.
Article source: https://movieweb.com/star-wars-9-c3po-deleted-scenes/