That One Terrific Fight Scene in ‘Rogue One’ Was a Product of Reshoots

Whether or not you enjoyed the rest of Rogue One, there’s one scene in particular that pretty much everyone agrees is great. It happens right at the end after Jyn Erso’s team have successfully send the Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance (I’d say spoilers, but we all already know that happens anyway), and is a welcome burst of nostalgia featuring one familiar character and some wild swordfighting. According to editor John Gilroy, that scene was one of the ones added during reshoots. (Okay, now I’m saying SPOILERS. You’ve been warned.)

At the very end of the movie, after Jyn and her friends sacrifice their lives to essentially send an email, Darth Vader makes one final appearance to mow through a group of nameless Alliance extras like a weedwhacker in an overgrown field. The flash drive with the plans is passed from hand to hand as the men meet their deaths by lightsaber as Vader makes one final push to get the plans back. He fails, obviously, and they make their way to one Princess Leia. Apparently, that big, decidedly one-sided fight scene was added in when Rogue One went through all those reshoots, according to Gilroy, who spoke about them with Yahoo Movies:

What was added — and it was a fantastic add — was the Vader action scene, with him boarding the ship and dispatching all those rebel soldiers. That was something conceptualized a little later.

The reshoots have been discussed and dissected a lot since the movie premiered, and many were criticized, but at least some of the stuff they decided to add in wasn’t all bad. In fact, the Vader fight in one of the high points of the movie, and fitting it in at the end like that was probably a good move — it allows audiences to leave the theater feeling a rush. There are no other lightsaber fights in the movie, and this way Rogue One reminds us that, yes, just in case you forgot, this is still a Star Wars film.