Movies - TV
Revenge Of The Sith's Original Younglings Massacre Scene Was 'Horribly Violent'
By MICHAEL BOYLE
One problem some “Star Wars” fans have with the prequel series is Anakin’s seemingly swift fall to the dark side, making his transformation into Darth Vader feel unconvincing. While the viewers might disagree about the believability of Vader’s speedy rise in “Revenge of the Sith,” the fallen Jedi’s implied youngling massacre is a shockingly dark moment in the franchise.
However, according to the film’s stunt coordinator, Nick Gillard, the scene was initially intended to be far more explicit than the off-screen mass child murder that made it into the film. Gillard shared, “We went into Hayden’s garage the night before we were going to shoot the scene and made it so violent. It was horribly violent. You can’t see it, but [Anakin] stabs a little girl through her throat.”
Thankfully, George Lucas decided to cut the scene down. Gillard explained, “It was so violent that they ended up shrinking it into a hologram … When we showed George he went, ‘Oh, dear’”; the hologram was also cut from the film. Although Lucas removed the graphic version, the director understood that sometimes the implication of evil deeds is far more twisted.