One would think that news of this matter would have already been revealed and discussed a while ago, but this is still fairly new to a lot of people, the fact that Kylo Ren was actually scripted to torture Chewbacca in Rise of Skywalker. According to Joonas Suatomo, the actor that took on the part of Chewbacca since long-time Wookie Peter Mayhew passed away in 2019, the scene was so intense that it was actually kind of scary to see just how devoted Adam Driver, aka Kylo Ren, was at that moment. It sounds as though Adam didn’t talk to anyone during the breaks, preferring to stay in character so that the scene would come out as it should. Unfortunately, that meant that the torture of Chewbacca by Kylo was so insanely intense that it was apparently deemed to be too much for the audience and it was cut. It’s difficult to know how to think about this matter since Chewbacca is one of the original characters from the first trilogy and a staple of the Star Wars universe that people can’t see as anything but the strong character that he’s been for so long. It’s fair to say that if a worse fate had befallen the Wookie, such as having a moon dropped on him by an alien species as happened in the EU, people would have likely rioted. But torturing the Wookie is apparently too much to bear since people might have been freaked out.
This means that people are either too sensitive or J.J. Abrams simply didn’t want to offend people since Star Wars has been a lot of fun and a lot of action, but it’s also been rather family-oriented as well over the years, meaning that the death and destruction that has occurred has been treated with kid gloves in many ways. Also, it’s a little difficult to really tone down a torture scene unless Kylo was planning on invading Chewbacca’s mind to ‘read’ him and figure out what was happening with the Resistance and where they could be found. It would have been a violation that would have still facilitated the death of Kylo or Chewbacca since that kind of invasion of the mind and spirit would have been intolerable, especially by someone that Chewbacca watched grow into a young man. Trying to imagine any reconciliation after that is pretty difficult since after one has broken another person down in such a manner it doesn’t feel that there’s any apology that could possibly suffice, or any action taken that would be able to alleviate that kind of hurt. But a lot of people would also state that leaving this scene in would have made it nearly impossible to believe in Ben’s redemption arc, which came so swiftly that some people still had an issue with it.
People appear to be forgetting the fact that there’s another dark lord in the Star Wars franchise that did horrible things and yet found redemption in the last movie of his trilogy. Darth Vader did even worse things than Kylo Ren since Kylo’s grandfather made him look weak by comparison, and to be fully honest, Anakin would have torn Kylo apart mentally, emotionally, and physically since Vader wasn’t prone to temper tantrums and had a razor-sharp focus that did not deviate that much. Had Vader ever been given a chance to torture Chewbacca it’s likely that the Wookie would have been left broken in every conceivable way since Vader wasn’t known for being merciful. And yet, by the end of Return of the Jedi, Vader had his redemption arc as well, and this is a guy that did some of the worst things in the galaxy and was one of the biggest monsters around. So thinking that Kylo torturing Chewbacca was that bad is a sign that things have grown increasingly sensitive when it comes to movie content. It’s odd too since some things can still be shown and people won’t bat an eye, while other moments that are even mentioned have people gasping and holding a hand to their mouth as though they’ve seen or heard the worst possible thing in the world. Did anyone happen to remember that Darth Vader was responsible for the deaths of many Jedi on his own, including younglings that hadn’t yet learned how to defend themselves?
It almost feels as though the reason why people think that Kylo torturing Chewbacca would be taboo is simply that it would be akin to torturing a family member, only this time with full knowledge of who the person being tortured is, as Vader had no clue yet that Leia was his daughter. Something kind of indicates that even this wouldn’t have stopped him right away. Out of all the deleted scenes in this trilogy, it feels as though this was one of those that could have made it in and been just fine, in fact, it might have even helped.
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