C-3PO’s sage advice to R2-D2 in A New Hope served as a terse reminder as to why you should never cross Chewbacca — but The Force Awakens nearly had a scene that would have reminded us of this wisdom in a much more brutal fashion, and now you can see a glimpse of it.
Revealed through Entertainment Weekly today, and included among others on the upcoming 3D re-release of the film alongside a new commentary track from director J.J. Abrams, the new deleted scene takes place on Takodana, and sees Rey bump into her “old friend” Unkar Plutt in Maz’s bar, just after Finn departs the group.
Plutt is trying to reclaim the Millennium Falcon, but the young scavenger is having none of it. Happily, Chewbacca is there to offer his help in getting the point across:
Although the clip above doesn’t show it, Unkar’s goading of the wounded Wookiee leads to ‘ novelization, which was based on an earlier draft of the movie script. After Plutt provokes him, Chewie responds with the same threat Han warned he was capable of after nearly losing that game of Dejarik in A New Hope:
Grabbing the thrusting arm, a roaring Chewbacca twisted and ripped it off at the shoulder, throwing the dismembered limb clear across the room. Looking down at himself, Plutt let out a scream of agony…
Oh dear. It would have been rather graphic, especially from the usually restrained Star Wars movies, to show someone’s arm getting torn off… but it’s hard to deny that Unkar Plutt would have deserved it. One quarter-portion for all those doodads?! What a jerk.
The Force Awakens 3D re-release hits shelves November 2.