It's hard to imagine Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ending differently, what with all of the film's heroes essentially needing to sacrifice themselves because none of them are mentioned or appear in any of the future instalments.
But apparently, the anthology movie originally had a much happier, less death-y ending – and it even had a wedding.
Chris Weitz, the screenwriter who took over from Gary Whitta on the film, revealed in an interview with the CultPopture podcast that the ending audiences saw, in which the protagonists were obliterated by the Death Star, hadn't yet been written when he stepped into the role.
“The version prior to [me taking over] didn’t have everyone die," explained Weitz. "As a matter of fact, it ended with a wedding. I think it was on the presumption that Disney wouldn’t allow characters to die with such abandon."
Weitz went on to explain that he felt the sacrificial ending was a necessary one "because nobody ever mentions them or sees them again. But also because we’ve done this whole sort of theme about sacrifice that it was appropriate that all of our main characters die."
With Tony Gilroy eventually replacing Gareth Edwards as director, the film underwent further drastic changes, which accounts for a lot of the different scenes audiences saw in the trailers.
"If you imagine the beginning of the second act and the end of the second act kind of swapping places, that would not be an inaccurate way to portray how it structurally was changed," said Weitz.
"A lot of the deaths were put in different locations than they were originally put in the script and were originally shot. I’m not sure why, for instance, K-2 died in a different place."
The next Star Wars film, Episode IX, will be released in the UK on 19 December, 2019 and in the US on 20 December, 2019.
