Darth Vader Killed This Character In The Original 'Rogue One' Ending

Now that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is finally hitting home video, we are beginning to get some insight into the original screenplay and earlier cuts of the first Star Wars stand alone movie. In a new interview, screenwriter Gary Whitta reveals that Darth Vader originally killed one of the main characters in the film. Learn more about it, after the jump.

Director Orson Krennic (played by Ben Mendelsohn) was never going to make it out alive from Rogue One, but how he was going to die changed drastically from Gary Whitta's first draft. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the screenwriter explains that Krennic was originally going to survive the Death Star's assault on Scarif, only to be killed moments later by Darth Vader. This is the same draft of the script where Jyn and Cassian survived the battle, which we talked about yesterday.

According to Whitta, Director Krennic somehow finding shelter from the Death Star blast on Scarif. Imperial forces would have rescued him from the rubble and then "brought him to the Star Destroyer to report to Vader." Here's Whitta:

"He's all beat up, his cape's all torn up and stuff, and he thinks he has survived. [But] Vader kills him for his failure."

Darth Vader would have killed Krennic with a force choke, which sounds a bit disappointing, drama-wise. The current ending is more dramatically appropriate, with the director of the Death Star project being blown to bits by the evil weapon that he's dedicated his life to building. Whitta admits that uncovering Krennic from the rubble was "a bit of a reach, which is why it isn't in the finished film."

I still wonder how Krennic played into the original ending of Rogue One, the one that was shot and then altered. The trailers showed Krennick walking on the beach, and in a released still, we see a shot of Krennic with a blaster in an Imperial meeting. Anyone have any theories as to what may have happened here in the original version? I'd love to hear them in the comments.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be released as a digital download on March 24, and on blu-ray and DVD on April 4, 2017.