'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' news: Substantial deleted scenes to be included in Blu-ray release

A promotional photo for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" Facebook/StarWarsPH

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" writer-director Rian Johnson and producer Ram Bergman has revealed that the newly released film had a good number of scenes deleted from the final cut including entire sequences which will be available in the eventual Blu-ray release.

In an interview with Deadline, Johnson and Bergman assured the fans that there is plenty of content that did not make it in the final cut to look forward to in the Blu-ray release.   

"We shot a lot, man. Just like any other film, it came together in the edit," Johnson said. "The editing is the completion of the writing process. We were not at all precious about this film. We tore it apart. We ripped stuff out. There's going to be a lot of great deleted scenes. I'm not trying to sell Blu-rays here, there are just going to be a lot of deleted scenes."

Johnson further pointed out that the scenes deleted had substance and not just alternative takes, saying some of them were his favorite sequences in the movie.

"And it's not just shots of characters walking down hallways, either," Johnson indicated. "There are entire sequences that got lifted out of it, which taken on their own are some of my favorite sequences in the movie. But for the good of the whole, they had to come out."

If included in the final cut, the deleted sequences would have added to the already lengthy runtime of "The Last Jedi" which is the longest chapter in the Star Wars sage thus far at 152 minutes. Johnson had previously mentioned that the first assembly cut, which likely included every scene from the script that had been shot, exceeded three hours. Express UK also reports that some of the deleted scenes have advanced far enough in the process to receive a soundtrack.

In the meantime, fans can watch the finished product as the film is currently in theaters. The Blu-ray release for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is expected to come between March and April of next year.  

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