Darth Vader almost killed this “Star Wars” character at the very end of “Rogue One”

The ending of Rogue One is already pretty dark, but what you might not know is that it could have gotten even DARKER. That’s right. In the treasure trove of scrapped Rogue One storylines and footage, there’s an additional scene featuring Darth Vader killing off a prominent Rogue One character, but was ultimately cut.

If you were hoping for more Darth Vader in Rogue One, you *almost* got your wish. According to Rogue One writer, Gary Whitta, there was a whole other scene at the end of the movie with Darth Vader that ultimately didn’t make the cut.

In the potential ending of the film, villainous Director Krennic doesn’t die the way we saw in the final cut (you know, in the blast that destroys Scarif). Instead, he somehow manages to find cover in the wreckage of the final explosion and survive. Here’s what he told Entertainment Weekly about it:

“They tore him out of the rubble and they brought him back [to the ship]. When they’re going over the ruins, he somehow survived. 

This sounds kinda implausible — but it is a Star Wars movie so we’ll just go along with it. Sure! Krennic survived! And then what?

 “[Krennic] survived the blast and they pulled him up and brought him to the Star Destroyer to report to Vader. He’s all beat up, his cape’s all torn up and stuff, and he thinks he has survived. 

THINKS, being the key word. Krennic only survives for a minute. Then he somehow gets strangled by an ~unseen force~ which, come on, we know it’s Darth Vader.

So yeah, the movie could’ve gotten even darker, if that’s even possible. You can grab a copy of Rogue One to rewatch digitally on March 24th and April 4th on Blu-ray.