Although Darth Vader played a brief but memorable role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Sith Lord’s appearance was originally much different.
Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta revealed that in his initial pitch to Lucasfilm, Vader actually went planetside to directly turn the tide during the Battle of Scarif in the Empire’s favor in the 2016 film.
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“The version I pitched (but never wrote) had Vader on the Scarif beach single-handedly slaughtering his way through a Rebel blockade at the base of the Imperial tower,” he told Cinema Blend. “The version in the Raddus hallway works much better because it’s so contained, feels more horror than action.”
In the final film, Vader never sets foot on the tropical planet where the climactic battle takes place instead boarding the Rebel cruiser the Raddus. Once aboard, the Dark Jedi moves through a darkened corridor like a horror movie slasher cutting through an entire squad of Rebel troopers desperately trying to get the Death Star plans to Princess Leia’s Tantive IV and set up the events of the original Star Wars trilogy.
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The production of Rogue One reportedly ran into issues during post-production with Tony Gilroy providing extensive rewrites while overseeing reshoots and editing instead of director Gareth Edwards. Based on Whitta’s comments, it looks like Vader’s role was changed before the rewrites even took place leading to the most iconic moment of the entire film.