Alan Tudyk's K-2SO has been praised as being one of the best aspects of Disney and Lucasfilm's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. A reprogrammed Imperial droid who's incapable of keeping his thoughts to himself, Tudyk's K-2SO not only gets a majority of the film's biggest laughs, but ends up giving it some of its most emotional moments as well, as his relationship with Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) comes to an end in Rogue One's final moments. Likewise, the pre-existing friendship he has with Cassian leads to some of the film's best banter and most memorable one-liners.

There's been a lot of talk about what was changed in Rogue One's highly publicized reshoots, and how much the film's trailers and BTS videos give away about what was originally shot and intended for the film, and what actually ended up happening. Turns out, Cassian and K-2SO originally came to a much different end than what fans saw in the theatrical cut of the film.

Thanks to a new behind-the-scenes video from ABC News that goes into the film's creation of K-2SO and the technology that was used to create the character, fans get an interesting look at what seems to be an alternate death scene for both K-2SO and Cassian. Look closely during the video, and you'll see Tudyk acting like he's getting blasted by stormtroopers before falling down to the ground dead, next to a similarly non-responsive Cassian. Also of note is that the two seem to die on the sandy beaches of Scarif. Check it out below:

Now, thanks to the shot at the top of the article and previous comments from those involved with the film, it's already well known that Jyn and Cassian's journey to transmitting the Death Star plans was not originally as contained to the Scarif tower as what ends up happening. Instead, it's clear that after she got her hands on the plans, there was a sequence featuring Jyn and her comrades racing across the Scarif beaches, avoiding as much imperial fire and destruction as they can, in what has been one of the most highly talked about omissions from the theatrical cut.

It looks like, based on this footage then, that K-2SO and Cassian likely met their original end at the conclusion of that sequence, dying at the doors of an Imperial building, perhaps while trying to buy Jyn enough time to transmit the plans. This is, obviously, much different than what happens in the actual film, since it not only changes the location of their deaths, but changes who the characters die with. In the original version, it seems like Cassian and K-2SO died together, rather than K-2SO dying alone, and Cassian dying with Jyn on the beach, which could mean there was a much larger emphasis put on K-2SO and Cassian's friendship in the original version.

It's becoming increasingly more clear that most of the changes made to Rogue One took place during its third act. Even the film's editors have said as much, and this is only further evidence of the multiple different incarnations and variations that the Battle on Scarif took throughout the editing and post-production process. This likely won't be the last bit of news that comes out regarding the film's reshoots and changes, as more and more details are revealed or leaked the longer it's been since Rogue One was released. In terms of the changes that have already been brought to light, though, this is one of the more interesting, since it hints at an even more drastically different third act than most fans had previously thought.

Source: ABC News