One of the most distinct moments in The Force Awakens was Rey’s vision. Deep in the bowels of Maz Kanata’s castle, Rey is drawn to the long-lost lightsaber of Luke Skywalker, and upon touching it visions are unleashed. The first sees Rey on Cloud City in a scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Rumours of the time – largely prompted by Luke Bespin and Darth Vader figures being included in the first wave of The Force Awakens figures, the only non-TFA figures in Episode 7 packaging apart from a quartet of characters from Star Wars Rebels – suggested that originally, this sequence was far more involved than the one we saw on screen.
Adam Frazier from First Showing and Geeks of Doom tweeted this image of actor Rob Boulter, dressed in Luke’s iconic Bespin garb, ready for his scenes as the battered and beaten young padawan as we saw him in The Empire Strikes Back.
Rey’s “Force Vision” in THE FORCE AWAKENS originally included Luke & Vader’s duel from The Empire Strikes Back. The scene was cut but thanks to Reddit, we’re finally getting our first look at what ESB Luke would have looked like in TFA, played by Robert Boulter. Wild stuff. pic.twitter.com/oMWl7cM72Q
— Adam Frazier (@AdamFrazier) 26 November 2018
And here is the final sequence from the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GY0V8GmIp0
Would Boulter have been digitally replaced with a CGI Mark Hamill, in a similar style to how Ingvild Deila was morphed into Princess Leia at the very end of Rogue One? Hopefully one day we’ll find out.
UPDATE: Unbeknownst to us, and to give credit where it’s due, the original rumour surrounding the casting of Robert Boulter as young Luke was originally posted back in 2015 by the gang at Making Star Wars. Thanks to Jeremy Conrad for pointing that out.
