Those of us who here at Don’t Feed the Gamers who have seen Rogue One: A Star Wars story are still recovering from the ending of the film, both returning to the normal, staid nature of daily life after having experienced the ecstasy that was Darth Vader finally seen laying waste to helpless souls with his crimson lightsaber, as well as the mourning of the new cast of characters we were introduced to in this standalone film. As added salt to these fresh, infected wounds, it sounds like the originally planned Rogue One ending could’ve have seen different fates for the new heroes.

In a new Empire podcast episode, Rogue One director Gareth Edwards revealed that he first intended to have the new primary characters introduced in Rogue One survive the final battle on Scarif. His assumption was the family-friendly overlords at Disney would’ve preferred a happy ending for the heroes, but to Edwards’ surprise, Lucasfilm approved of the ending that audiences now are bearing witness to. According to Edwards, both Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and the involved Disney associates understood the logic involving Jyn Erso and friends not surviving the fateful battle over the Death Star plans, especially considering that these characters do not appear in the subsequent films in the Star Wars timeline.

Apparently, Gareth Edwards never even shot an alternate ending for any of the characters surviving, with the expectation that he would be told to do so later in production by Disney and Lucasfilm, but those demands never came. At least, some of these characters get to live on in other Star Wars projects, like Saw Gerrera’s upcoming appearance in Star Wars Rebels. What do you guys think? Were you satisfied with the canonical Rogue One ending? Would you have preferred this other ending? Let us know in the comments below.

Be sure to read our review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and future Star Wars news stories here on Don’t Feed the Gamers!