A longstanding rumour that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was originally due to feature Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker battling with lightsabers in a flashback scene appears to have been confirmed in a new book.



A key sequence in JJ Abrams’s blockbuster space opera reboot featured lead character Rey (Daisy Ridley) experiencing visions of the past – the segue has been dubbed the “Forceback” by fans – including Kylo Ren’s attack on Skywalker’s Jedi Academy and herself as a young child.

Abrams has already revealed that Ewan McGregor, AKA the prequel trilogy’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, recorded new lines of dialogue for the scene. Now the official book Star Wars The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story suggests Vader and Skywalker were also once part of the flashback sequence.

In the book, the scene is detailed as follows:

As she peered into the distance, she saw a man in black wielding a red lightsaber. His face was covered with a mask, moulded to approximate a human face. But the mask’s eyes were dead and empty. The man’s red lightsaber clashed against a brilliant beam of blue. A young man with blond hair raised his own lightsaber and fought furiously against the monster in black.

The website Making Star Wars reports the scene would originally have shown Rey watching the battling father and son, as featured in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, from a new vantage point in Cloud City. New actors were reportedly cast to play the roles, rather than Abrams recycling old footage.

Fans will be hoping the footage turns up as a deleted scene on the home video release for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in April. There have also been reports that a further unused sequence in Abrams’s film featured Lupita Nyong’o’s Kanata using telekinetic powers to fight off a stormtrooper incursion.