In their 2nd article revealing some “Rogue One” behind the scenes secrets, Entertainment Weekly has revealed how Orson Krennic was originally supposed to go out in the film, and it was a way that I think most fans, myself included expected him to die.
Here is what Entertainment Weekly found out about Krennic’s original death scene from writer Gary Whitta:
The Death Star shows up on the horizon of Scarif and does the same partial blast that we see in the finished movie — scorching the surface of the tropical world and demolishing the Rebel uprising along with the Empire’s weapons facility.
Back in this version of the story, Jyn Erso and the character we came to know as Cassian Andor escaped with both the data tapes and their lives. The villain of the story, Director Krennic also survived the battle, although barely.
Instead of lying wounded on a transmission platform while the green beam of the Death Star literally incinerates him on its trajectory into the planet, Krennic found shelter from the blast. In what sounds like a type of epilogue to the story, we would have seen his rescue by Imperial forces.
“They tore him out of the rubble and they brought him back,” Whitta says. “When they’re going over the ruins, he somehow survived.”
“He survived the blast and they pulled him up and brought him to the Star Destroyer to report to Vader,” Whitta says. “He’s all beat up, his cape’s all torn up and stuff, and he thinks he has survived.”
Krennic thinks he has endured. He thinks he has served valiantly for the Emperor. He thinks he has done everything right, everything within his power … right up until an unseen force squeezes off the air in his throat.
“Vader kills him for his failure,” Whitta says.
Just like yesterday’s report about Jyn and Cassian surviving, they definitely went with the better death sequence for Krenninc in the final film, as it sounded like there would have been a lot of explaining to do in order to make his survival seem plausible.
For more from Gary Whitta, including more on how he wanted to use Vader, be sure to head on over to Entertainment Weekly
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