Broom Kid

In the theatrical I agree it seemed like he got Bor Gullet’d and then took a nap and was good, LOL.

But I think placing the now-3min sequence between Rings of Kafrene and Krennic meeting Tarkin, the movie-time between Saw being a giant weirdo (and Mon underlining that through dialog about 6min later) and Cassian/Chirrut/Baze finding him during Galen’s message, the “getting over it right away” doesn’t actually feel like that anymore: Instead of checking back in with Bodhi every 6-7min, now he’s getting absolutely screwed by the Partisans in one intense 3min glut (if this was a reshoot then this is Gilroy work, which makes a little more sense as to why it fits butted up against the Andor/Tivik scene that was also straight Gilroy work) then Tarkin talks about him, then the Alliance talks about him, then we see the Empire flipping Jedha upside down for him, and when we finally see him again outside of the one hologram on the street, it’s about 30min later and he’s mumbling to himself about being the Pilot.

Since my aim is trying to rebalance tone and characterization in the context of Andor being released & Rogue One having aged 7 years, that Bor Gullet is not as plot important (and you’re 100% right, it never was!) isn’t a big deal I don’t think. The focus for me is more on what introducing Saw fully before the Alliance does for that tone, and poking at how what he’ll do to Bodhi (and how Bodhi will endure it) will feel like for post-Andor rewatchers. Can I heighten what’s happening without overtly bringing in references FROM that show; but calling that feel to mind through reshaping all those scenes into one sequence by cutting for pacing/performance.

LOL that is probably the gentlest way to put the absolute most pressure on me possible 😃

Seriously though, Thank you, man! And hopefully this works for most folks, although if some of the choices do not work for some viewers, hopefully it can become the base for some “half-ass” edits for other folks! In the reddit version of this thread, the reinstatement of Bor Gullet (which is a thing that’s happening here) has caused some “hmmmmmm’s” to pop out - which I get!

But also, I figure at this point, what made Bor Gullet cuttable in 2017 is not as applicable in 2025. When the movie came out, all we knew of Saw was The Clone Wars and a Rebels appearance? So him being a complete wackjob with a pet beanbag monster was… WAY out there. But now? Oh, Saw Gerrera drooling and shouting and taking massive hits of Rhydo is extreeeemely in character, LOL. Plus now Bodhi’s defection/capture is one 3 minute sequence, it’s not cut up and spread around the first half of the movie anymore.

“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes.”
-Senator Leia Organa of Alderaan, as quoted by Alan Dean Foster
Star Wars, from the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, by George Lucas (Nov. 1976)

Hello there!

The quote above, written by Alan Dean Foster and referring to Han & Luke, I feel applies a more closely to the characters of Rogue One, the 2016 prequel to that story, and that film’s 2022 prequel, Andor. Heroes of the unsung, unknown variety; their victories and sacrifices all the more meaningful and poignant because of it. It’s almost impossible to rewatch Rogue One, almost 10 years after its premiere, without two seasons of Andor weighing on it, pushing some to see it as a sort of “series finale” to that show.

But I don’t think it really works as a series finale to Andor; yet Andor is clearly, intentionally building to it. Showrunner Tony Gilroy specifically begins to fold the more hopeful/fantastical elements of both Rogue One (which he famously rewrote/reshot/re-edited) and Star Wars into its tapestry near the end, explicitly, for that reason! But Rogue One is still most solidly built, dramatically, as a bridge. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Special Edition is my attempt to reverse engineer the bridge, to carry viewers from a complicated 2016 to a more fantastical 1977 in a more streamlined manner; but also back towards the darker, demanding 2023-2025 series.

Sequences are compressed, not just to save time, but to maximize performances - there’s a TON of awards-caliber actors in this flick (the cast’s collective CV - maybe the best pound-for-pound cast IN a theatrical Star War - includes 2 Oscars, 2 Oscar Noms, a Cannes Grand Prix, a Cannes Best Actor, and 2 Emmys in it!) Those scenes have been rearranged a little too; some of Gilroy’s reshoot material is now stacked on top of itself at the open instead of spread out across the first 45min. And the stuff he didn’t reshoot has been made (yup, I’m gonna say it) faster and more intense. In 2016 the callbacks and (yup, gonna say this, too) fanservice was a little more welcomed (or tolerated). In 2025 it’s almost Alien: Romulus levels of elbows-to-the-ribs, and a lot of it’s been removed as a result. Although some of it’s fine. I don’t mind a pitcher of blue milk sitting out. It’s good and good for you. Healthy bones. Makes you strong enough to pull the ea–

Context is the key word here. There’s a lot of context coming to bear on this cut, context folks didn’t have (hell, that didn’t exist yet!) in 2016. Not just Andor, and all the context that show now provides to characters like Cassian and K-2SO, Orson Krennic and Saw Gerrera, even General Draven and Mon Mothma; but context via the previous edits and editors who have worked on this film in the interim. Some of those choices and ideas have been folded into this Special Edition.

That’s why this is a Special Edition: Normally I just do straight cuts and some music replacement. But since this started as some proof-of-concept tweaks, on a forum, to an edit of an edit, and then grew pretty quickly into something way more involved than that, there are things in here I don’t normally incorporate: You’ll see deepfake fixes to the CGI Tarkin & Leia from Shamook, as touched up by faneditor Burbin and integrated by Hal9000, as part of his own remixing of a top-notch edit by DigModiFicaTion. You’ll hear voice-over replacement of Darth Vader from Ryan Golden, as famously heard on YouTube via the Star Wars Story channel.

Click here for the trailer

You won’t hear, however, any music from Andor folded into the soundtrack - not for lack of trying! Multiple scenes had Britell/Roberts cues mixed in at various points, but they all eventually came out. Same with attempts at using shots from the series as flashbacks; The problem was one of tone and style. I don’t think you can take what’s structurally, fundamentally Jyn Erso’s story in this film, and retrofit it to be equally Cassian’s. Especially since, on a larger thematic note, Cassian’s two seasons were ALL ABOUT how he, and his friends (who are everywhere), learned to put other people, and their growing, maturing cause, ahead of themselves, all for the sake of a better future.

I found I was short-circuiting both Rogue One and Andor when I tried to force this movie out of Jyn’s POV - thin as it might be. Although: trimming off a lot of her sarcastic/simplistic fronting and letting Jones’ performance speak more through her expressive-yet-subtle emoting REALLY helps that characterization. Turns out the less you have her posing, the realer she feels.

(That said, if you ARE looking to try a version of this movie that is literally turned into episodes of that show, please check out NFBisms amazing Andor: The Rogue One Arc.)

ANYWAY: If Rogue One is a bridge being retrofitted, then Jyn Erso has to occupy the midway point between Cassian Andor and Luke Skywalker (at least the one at the beginning of Star Wars) as best she can in order for it to work. Cassian has to be a supporting character here, not a co-lead, or Andor doesn’t make sense as a journey for him anymore. Jyn damn sure is not a Jedi, but she IS a believer. The corners of the galaxy they both occupy are dirty and grimy, but they’re literally knocking on doors to rooms that are about to be populated by wizards in bathrobes (a lesson Krennic already knows in his own way). Britell’s music can be pitch shifted and key transposed to blend into Giacchino’s, but the tenor of those compositions just didn’t combine for me, no matter what I tried. I guess that ended up being a metaphor for the project overall.

But the feel and style by which Andor’s story was told (if not through its music or repurposed shots) was absolutely front of mind as the cut evolved. And when changes were applied, they were applied so as to take the ingredients of Rogue One - Grieg Fraser’s photography, Michael Giacchino’s music, Gilroy’s sense of building pressure and dry humor - and cook ‘em up with a little more of that flavor. Especially now that we have so much more context to work with.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Special Edition
2hrs, 6min. 1080p, 2.39:1, 5.1 Dolby Digital, English subtitles (alien-language subtitles burnt-in)

Chapters:

1. A Long Ride Ahead
2. Main Title and Captain Andor
3. Bodhi Rook, Cargo Pilot
4. When Has Become Now
5. Rebel Interrogation
6. Trust Goes Both Ways
7. The Guardians of the Whills
8. Ambush in the Holy City
9. Last Days of the Partisans
10. The Message
11. The Race to Eadu
12. Brief Reunions
13. You Can’t Talk Your Way Around This
14. Krennic’s Aspirations
15. Rebellions Are Built on Hope
16. Rogue One
17. Make 10 Men Feel Like 100
18. Light it Up
19. The Battle of Scarif
20. The Master Switch
21. Stardust
22. Your Father Would Have Been Proud
    23 Hope and End Credits

Notable changes can be found in this follow-up post here.

if you would like to check it out yourself, DIRECT MESSAGE A REQUEST OR EMAIL ME DIRECTLY AT STRAIGHTCUTSNOCHASER AT GMAIL. DO NOT JUST REQUEST A LINK BELOW. Not only is “link plz” not a great way to get noticed, not only will site ownership probably just wipe it out (it’s against the rules here!) but it’s honestly way better odds you’ll get seen and get your request fulfilled faster if you just DM me, anyway. 😃

Any suggestions, comments, critiques, questions - whatever you got, I’m all ears.

one half of one! It happens pretty quick, too.

edit: I almost forgot I put it up on YouTube for people to stumble across, LOL.

This is how the movie now opens, and where the 1/2 of a deleted scene appears -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg6v_jIMAKc

honestabe said:
I apologize if my post came across as aggressive.

Nah, you didn’t come off aggressive at all, don’t sweat that! It just gave me a moment to realize I hadn’t quite clocked or thought it all the way through, LOL. It’s okay. I’m gonna hang back for another month since as it turns out, that’s when the guy whose project this is gets back in here, and he’s gonna actually take another pass at this!

It’s all good 😃

honestabe said:
I think you made enough changes for a new thread. I also do not want Hal’s thread to get sidetracked here. I would like for him to retire from editing like he stated a while back. He has contributed more than enough to the fan editing community.

Just saw this, and straight off - apologies if I overstepped. I didn’t realize a) Hal was trying to get out of the game and b) this could be construed as putting a buncha stuff on his plate. I was basically just getting the ideas on their feet to see if they’d work and/or what you guys thought of seeing them as audio/video and not just theory. I’ll reach out - which I shoulda done in the first place!

Octorox said:

Sounds interesting. Would definitely like to see some clips!

Alright, here’s the halfass clipshow!

https://vimeo.com/1089604497/96ef54b8e8

Just thought it’d be interesting to see some of these ideas up on their feet

EddieDean said:

I agree with those calling to reinstate the Andor/Tivik scene.

I’d also argue the following:

• I think it’s now worth reinstating Cassian’s instructions from Draven to kill Galen Erso. As you argued originally, it was to keep the audience in Jyn’s perspective and related to her line on trust. But in retrospect now we’re coming from the Andor show, I think its inclusion adds more value, by adding more tension to their mission earlier, given that the Andor we know is off to do something perfectly reasonable given the context but that will put him in conflict with our newly introduced focal/vital character.
• I’d remove the scene of Jyn climbing up out of the records vault and having to dodge a slicing door that’s for some reason on a weird open-shut timer. I don’t think it adds any legitimate threat, and only comes off as a bit goofy tonally.

I had time today after finishing another project early (and apparently after succumbing to a wish to give myself carpal tunnel after the last month of doing this way too much) so I actually halfassed Hal’s halfassery that is, of course, wholeassed-but-just-humble-about-it-really 😃

SO: I went through the last couple pages of this thread today, and took note of the suggestions, and decided to try implementing them just to see if they’d work in a cut, and then I got a couple ideas while I was in there, so I just… did 'em. In the spirit of halfassing stuff and all. I can post clips of some of this stuff for people’s perusal if interested?

Correct, the audio from this (the runtime and the fps should be exactly the same down to the millisecond, LOL) should be easily muxable into any mkv of this ep (720p, 480p, 4K HDR) once extracted in full. Anyone with an existing 4K HDR/DV rip of this should be able to just drop the .ac3 file into their muxer of choice and voila.

It would be kind of comedically overkill to share the entirety of a 40+min .ac3 file solely to get a single syllable restored in the sound-mix, but that’s where we are, because LFL wouldn’t get out of Tony’s way on this one.

This is GREAT news, especially for massive fans of both Tartakovsky and this micro-series. I’m super happy to see this. Congrats to everyone involved, and honestly, congrats to us for getting to time travel back to 2005.

I get it, I just disagree. but it’s not my cut and I wouldn’t stop anyone, or want to, from making their cut look and sound the way they want it, either. Apologies if it’s reading as overstepping, I don’t mean for it to come off that way! Just sharing (probably oversharing) my thoughts in the wake of the show.

For what it’s worth though, my understanding was that Partagaz ultimately approved her arrest, and essentially set her up to be the patsy (more or less) for Ghorman in the first place. Tarkin chumps Krennic, Krennic tries to end run him and THATS when he hits the ceiling. That Vader considers him an annoyance is the point: Krennic thinks he’s a big dog who can end run Tarkin after Tarkin big dogs him, and gets casually choked for it like it’s nothing. It’s not even a finger being laid on his head. And for as much as Andor concerns itself (and is great because of this) with the lower echelons of both the Rebellion AND the Empire, it’s worth remembering the real ceilings in BOTH those institutions ARE Force-powered, ultimately. When we get to THE linking piece between 2025 and 1977, there’s really no reason to pretend otherwise anymore from a storytelling perspective (which Gilroy himself understood by slow-rolling The Force into Andor midway through S2 as part of his goal to flesh out the movie he saved in 2016)

But again: that’s just clarification into my POV, not an attempt to really change anyone else’s POV, much less change their edits. I want people to do what they feel is right for their cuts and their versions of the things they’re making for their own libraries and to share with their friends and followers more than anything. Apologies again if it came off as anything otherwise.

Faelin said:

I don’t think the point is to cut the hallway scene. At least when ive expressed cutting vader its been the scene with krennic on mustifar.

I think cutting him period is probably going too far. Krennic bullying Dedra pays off in the way he ends up becoming just like her when he butts up against that same fascist ceiling in Rogue One. She overreaches and winds up getting put in her place by both Partagaz and then Krennic. Krennic overreaches and gets chumped by both Tarkin, and then Vader. I get the general instinct, but I also feel like Gilroy is looking at Rogue One (and was looking at it when he got called in to fix it in the first place) as he’s making Andor and knows what it is he’s both leading into and also mirroring in subtle ways as he builds out his arcs.

Cutting Vader for the sake of cutting him to make Rogue One feel more like Andor feels, to me, like a short-circuiting of what Andor was doing in the first place by trying to build TO Rogue One.

I’ll DM you the wav of the mix so you can mix it into the episode proper, but yeah, you don’t need to ask permission or anything like that, just go ahead and use it! If I put anything out there, it’s automatically fair game for anyone else to transform however they see fit!

Funny story - I tried posting just that scene, as I had it on YouTube, to reddit on Mother’s Day (I hadn’t posted it to r/fanedits yet and thought that morning “hey, this would be kinda funny”) and it got deleted for “not being a fanedit” so just a heads up - trying to post it to reddit might NOT go so well. I never got an explanation on HOW it’s not a restoration according to their rules, either, but I didn’t think it was worth pressing the issue - it almost never is - especially over a single syllable, LOL.

Yeah. I took that audio, isolated the lines, retimed them (so they’re at the right speed and fit the scene correctly) mixed them into the center channel with Krennic so the levels match, and put that center channel back into the full 5.1 mix for the scene

EddieDean said:

That one’s not a trim I’d make, I’m afraid. I’m still pro-bridging-content in as many cases as possible. “All of Star Wars is better than any of Star Wars” remains my mantra - no one show, not even Andor, should trump the franchise continuity.

It’s so interesting to me how frequently “cut Vader out of Rogue One” has become the conclusion people are coming to after Andor S2. I can’t see it actually working, especially not since the hallway sequence is one of the most singularly acclaimed bits of Star Wars anything since it came back in 2015

Plus, thematically, (and there is no way Gilroy didn’t do this intentionally in S2 of Andor) anyone who has anything to do with those plans getting out, who touches them, basically gets got. Lonni, Luthen, Melshi, Cass, Jyn… Kleya is the exception but she really does try like hell to die on Coruscant, and is pretty hollowed out when she wakes up on Yavin. Anyway, to even KNOW there are plans, to have the words Death Star inside your head is death (Dedra is going to die in that jail - maybe Kleya only lives because those are the only words she forgot?) - at some point the rebels know this and touch them ANYWAY.

and the Hallway Scene, even though Gilroy had nothing to do with it, still fits that. You boil it down, the iconography, the score, and whaddya got: Rebels, who know that they cannot survive what they’re about to do, but if they do it, the people after them will have a chance, so they do it anyway. It’s a microcosm of the larger themes of both the movie that preceded it, and the prequel Gilroy wrote specifically to lead into that prequel.

ANYWAY: If you need 5.1 audio for both “Fuck the Empire” and the re-voiced Vader/Krennic scene lemme know, I can shoot that over to you no problem

Thanks so much for the kind words you two! And yeah, when Tartakovsky & Co. go hard, they go hard. Primal is probably some of the most intense stuff I’ve seen in a looooong time.

Well, it appears the link is already getting The Dread Quota Cooldown applied to it, BUT: I do believe the tried ‘n’ true method of bypassing said cooldown still applies! You create a shortcut of the file, you create a folder on your own google drive, you put the shortcut in the new folder, and you just download that folder. I’ll link the reddit post that provides the clearest instructions on how to do it (the comments are your typical smattering of “IT DOESN’T WORK… oh wait, nevermind I just did it wrongs” that any comments tend to be under something like this)

…but worse come to worse you might just have to wait a few hours and try again.

NICE! Thank you 😃

Okay, the cut is now live!

CHANGES
I didn’t keep a complete changelist: notating the sheer amount of micro-edits being done to improve pace, cut dialog/the spaces between dialog, would be EXHAUSTING to read, but I can note some of the more impactful alterations to take the show from being 5hrs 29min down to 2hrs 14min

• NO YODA. NO PLAGUEIS. Qimir does say the Jedi could call him Sith, but he never does quite say he is one, so considering that Kylo theme keeps getting quoted in the score, it can still be freely headcanon’d that these two somehow start the Knights of Ren, if you like that (most of the “Lore” this show had distracting it from the Kill Bill/Shaw Bros vibe is gone so it’s a lot of room to head canon whatever, really).

• While Osha is reticent to participate in the Ascension as per the show (the ceremony itself has been cut down to 70 seconds total before the Jedi interrupt it) her inclination to join the Order is now implied to be an idea not-so-subtly put there BY SOL via the Force. So now when Mother Koril suggests he mindtricked her… well…

• The prison ship uprising is entirely told via Sol pulling memories/visions from the madman’s head while he’s in Jedi Jail.

• Qimir is not a Stranger. Mae knows who he is in this cut; their Apothecary scene on Olega has been cut so his Kramer-isms are eliminated, his music from the lagoon has been laid into the score, and his voice has been pitched back down to its normal register. His goofy high-pitched persona is only put on for the Jedi. He is not hiding his identity from Mae, and all references to her not knowing who her master is and trying to kill Jedi with no weapon (her blood type is apparently Knife-O-Positive, she just doesn’t have her own lightsaber) are omitted. Since there’s no Plagueis at all, you’re free to imagine that Mae & Qimir have been hanging out at that Dark Side Day-Spa for… awhile now. Getting FAMILIAR. Probably a little tired of each other, too.

• Kelnacca’s death isn’t a race between Mae/Qimir & the Jedi anymore, it’s just a straight-up trap in this cut. Everyone knows where Mae’s going (even Ki-Adi Mundi knows it, LOL) We no longer see Mae & Qimir land on Khofar at all. The reveal of Kelnacca’s death now happens as a shaky vision Sol has after Bazil goes missing (“We need a tracker for our tracker”) that he is scared & confused by while Osha is bugging him about being allowed to confront Mae (again.) Immediately after having this vision Bazil starts howling and they take off for his house.

• Bazil is mostly gone, too! He’s maybe the only thing in this show weirder and creepier than Sol, and at least you can understand Sol. I don’t know what the hell Bazil is doing, and I think the only real reason he’s on the ship is to get Pip into Mae’s hands. So yeah. The drawer-huffing rat thing is 85% gone!

• The big reason Mae & Qimir fall out now is due to her hiding out in Kelnacca’s house, letting him do 90% of the dirty work, keeping him out in the open and then when she leaves, she almost immediately gets pinched by Jecki, and tries to escape them AND him (she’s clearly still a little shook from finding out Osha is alive, and double-shook at seeing Qimir move like a magnet right to her)

• Vernestra is only here to reinforce that she is primarily interested in covering up whatever this is, from beginning to end, however she has to do it. She’s present at the jail when she just wants to pin it on Osha and call it a day; at the secret meeting w/ Ki-Adi (This dude SHOWS UP when Wookiees are down bad, huh!) when she wants the “investigation” out of Sol’s hands because he’s clearly going to screw it up; and when they finally go to the Brendok aftermath. Sorry, no lightwhip sequence while looking at the Khofar aftermath.

• Unfortunately, keeping Vernestra Coruscant-bound and only present when needed on cover-up duty means the great David Harewood (the Martian Manhunter himself!) is only in one shot of this cut, at the very end, with no lines, when she is chucking Sol’s dead body under all four tires of the bus and telling the bus to back up.

• Mae no longer suggests Osha can and will come find her at the end, and Qimir no longer says he will “attempt” to wipe her memory. He says definitively that he can, and he does - she doesn’t stumble or try to recite another syllable of their poem once he performs the mindwipe.

Other than that, it’s just a lot of shoe-leather getting removed, mostly: wipes to and from locations (this show had a LOT of wipes!) where people basically just have variations on the same conversations (“Why won’t you let me have revenge?” “Why do you keep telling me this very obvious thing I refuse to believe for no reason?” “Why are you pretending not to know the thing you and I were both there for?”) before getting to the scene where characters and/or plot actually advance, typically through VERY COOL fight sequence, as a proper kung-fu revenge flick SHOULD resolve most emotional conflicts.

CamSMurph said:

I admire how your edit aims to pay homage to the classic Shaw Brothers movies. As someone who skipped out on the show, I never would’ve thought of drawing comparisons to a defunct movie studio based in Hong Kong! 😄

I wouldn’t have thought it either! Or at least, not until I got about halfway through the season and was like “they’re really paying homage to wuxia films huh”

and then I read some interviews, and that’s where I came across the classic “Elevator pitch” quote that Headland gave re: “Kill Bill meets Frozen,” but then LATER said they were ALSO inspired by “Come Drink With Me,” considered by many to be the birth of the wuxia genre (it got nominated for Best Foreign Film in 67). Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” also got namechecked to explain why the show is jumping all over the place with the timeline and basically creating “mysteries” by only showing you half a story and then showing you the rest later like “Gotcha!”, but I clearly didn’t think that worked too well, so yeah. Outta here.

Whereas the standard “You destroyed my temple, now I vow revenge against yours! FIGHT ME!” setup/follow through of a TON of Shaw Bros kung-fu classics IS still present here. The trick is to try and stick as close to the story spine of that Shaw Bros inspiration, and its “get in a big-ass fight every 15-20min” rhythm with what’s given in the show, and how the show tried to present that as a lore-filled prequel-y Star Wars rule-bound THING.

I will say, even though this isn’t anywhere near as focused on all that mishigoss as the show proper was, I believe the way this plays, it’s a LOT easier (and a lot more easy to explain the stray Ren music motifs that appear to this end) for someone to headcanon this cut as the potential origin of the Knights of Ren. If one wanted to, I guess.

v2 published 07/28/2025

Changes from v1 available here.
Original post from 05/19/2025 follows below.

As soon as Russian Doll came out, I was like “I’m calling Lucasfilm. That’s where I want to work. That’s what I want to do.” So I pitched them. My elevator pitch was Frozen meets Kill Bill. And Kathleen bought it in the room, and said “I love it. I want to start working on it.”
Leslye Headland, Creator/Showrunner, The Acolyte.

Hello There!

I don’t often get to say I have anything in common with Kathleen Kennedy, being as she’s one of the most successful film producers in history, and I’m someone who fan-edits other people’s movies, sometimes, on the internet, for free, anonymously! But: absolutely loving that pitch? Me & Kathy are on common ground there, no doubt!

A tale of two sisters! Magical sisters! But instead of building snowmen and bursting into song and lugging Josh Gad around, these sisters are, into doing, you know, NINJA THINGS: Vengeance-fueled, stupid-sexy-shirtless STAR WARS Sith-Celebration-Come Drink With Me-Type-Stuff! Who wouldn’t love that? Well… uh… as it so happened…

This TV-to-Movie edit takes the 8-episode series, and re-shapes it into a 2hr, 14min movie, cutting away most everything not core to that solid-as-hell elevator pitch. And so:

TRAILER HERE

The Acolyte: A Star Wars Story is now a kung-fu revenge flick wherein a creepy cop, weirdly fixated on kidnapping a kid, drags his three partners into an unholy mess as he bumrushes a coven of moon witches just minding their business at the ass-end of space. This, inevitably, screws up both the kid (who he ends up discarding after a couple years) and her twin sister, who he leaves for dead after kinda/sorta/accidentally/on-purpose causing the total destruction of everything she’s ever loved and then covering that up for the next 16 years. Naturally, Sith happens.

This cut goes in straight chronological order; NO flashbacks, NO “reveals.” There is zero mystery as to what happens, and who does what and when they do it. Because this cut doesn’t do the Rashomon thing at all now, it can occupy a recognizable Shaw Bros revenge rhythm: Monks wreck temple, young student escapes, learns ancient arts, kills their way up the ladder to the real villain; who is running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying (and failing) to stop what’s coming: big-ass fight scenes every 15min or so, and then a righteous kill. But now that structure’s got lightsabers in it! A whole bunch of ‘em! And also the first real peek at what Sith training looks like, and uh… it’s hot? And therapeutic?

There’s also no forced and squishy ambiguity because of that, which I think is fine for a simple kung-fu revenge flick: Sol is clearly a sweaty (and crappy!) cover-up artist who could make this movie a 3 min Digital Short if he just admitted he sucks; but he can’t, so now everyone’s gotta die. Mae is clearly teamed up with Qimir, a simple man who enjoys philosophy, bartending, cooking and killing; he is clearly hot as hell, twice as funny, makes some great points, and most importantly: has never skipped arm day in his life. Osha is clearly even more about that life than Mae is, but is crazy-repressed because a creepy crooked space cop openly brainwashed her straight outta homeschool. Yord is Yord. Yoda and Plagueis do not exist in this Dojo. There is no main title, no opening crawl, no iris out to John Williams music. For better or worse, it’s a Star Wars Story where the “good guys” (-ish!) are witches and Sith (or proto-Knights of Ren, who knows). I don’t really have a frame of reference for how you iris out of that story into Luke Skywalker’s theme. So I didn’t!

Anyway, in keeping with the pitch that started it all, I tried applying the sort of crispy, early 2000s-era digital intermediate look the Kill Bill blu-rays had: Contrasty, sharp, a tiny-bit saturation boosted, with some Kodak 35mm film emulation laid in. This aspect is now unique only to v1, and has been replaced for v2. v2 is the only version available as of 7/28/2025.) It’s also got a way faster running time than the show did:

The Acolyte: A Star Wars Story

2hrs, 14min. 1080p, 2.39:1, 5.1 Dolby Digital. English Subtitles.

Chapters:

1. Under the Bunta Tree
2. The Power of Two
3. Ascension
4. Failing the Test
5. Starting a Fire
6. 1 - Master Indara
7. Mae is Alive
8. 2 - Master Torbin
9. Streets of Olega
10. 3 - Master Kelnacca
11. What Extraordinary Beings
12. Masters and Pupils
13. Osha’s Strength
14. 4 - Master Sol
15. I’m With You, You’re With Me
16. The Acolyte/End Credits

Notable changes can be found in this follow-up post here

Any questions, suggestions, let 'em fly, I’m all ears and always happy to hear what you might have to say! If this sounds at all enticing, Please don’t just ask for a link in the comments, DM me here, or send me an email directly at straightcutsnochaser at gmail.

Bored at 3AM said:

I think this version of Rogue One is exactly what I’d want, but I think reinserting Andor’s introduction would be better at this point. I understand the idea of starting the story off through Jyn’s eyes, but Cassian’s first scenes were sorely missed.

I think this is the move, yeah. The edit as it stands is streamlined more or less as beautifully as the film can be, considering what Gilroy was working with and just the nature/focus of the narrative of the story. But Cassian’s intro to that story is a must-have now. Before that last episode aired I was still under the thinking that the whole show was essentially a series-length embellishment/replacement for that Kafrene intro, which was as nice a shorthand you could ask for the Bond-esque rogue setup (A Luthen-trained hero if there ever was one, as it turns out) in a single scene. But that last episode makes such a big deal about Tivik calling, the opposition to believing the info (even bringing back Jebel and Pamlo), and how Draven and Mon are sticking their neck out to send him out there to meet him

I do believe that scene’s gotta go back now. It’s not just his intro anymore, it’s literally validation of Luthen’s death (and his tactics, LOL. Poor Tivik). Other than that, I think this cut is structurally pretty sound.

I would also like to toss this out there as a sort of overall/philosophical idea regarding Rogue One and its relation to Andor, and specifically this edit being more focused on Jyn than it is Cassian:

The show, even though it has Cassian’s name, and uses him as a throughline, isn’t really ABOUT him all the time either. It might be a little thematically confusing trying to re-conform a cut that already trimmed down the film (which was sort of a mashup as it was by the time it made it to its finished form via Gilroy’s rewrites/reshoots) to fit a more coherent Erso-focused POV, and expand it back out and shift itself to be a coda to two seasons of television (that were written after the fact anyway, and with way more leeway and runway)

But considering how much of Andor is literally about how main characters in their own circles BECOME supporting characters in other peoples, and still do extraordinary work; and then recede (or disappear) into history’s shadows so others can become that history’s main characters… I think there’s something fitting to Rogue One (or even this edit of it) having that happen to Cassian himself. He goes through his journey throughout the show - and Rogue One is him (and K2) taking the co-pilot seat to help Jyn’s mission get completed because that’s what needs to happen for the Rebellion to succeed. That’s in Rogue One already, to some level. I think there’s a danger of short-circuiting that, instead of amplifying it, if Rogue One gets re-edited too much to be a “sequel” to Andor, to be a referendum on the guy himself instead of letting it be Jyn’s story, with Cassian as a supporting character in it.

NOT FROM A JEDI…