Check Out This Chilling Concept Art From The Original Ending Of 'Revenge Of The Sith'
The ending of a movie is arguably the most important part of it. It's the main thing that the audience is going to remember once the movie is over. A good ending can turn a bad movie into a decent one, turn a good movie into a bad one, or enhance a masterpiece. It's always interesting to see how a film could have ended, and to discuss whether that would have improved the original film. For example, in the original Alien film, the xenomorph was originally supposed to rip Ripley's head off, then mimic her voice for the famous "signing off" monologue, which would have made Aliens impossible, and nobody wants to live in a world without Aliens. It would have also spared us every single movie after Aliens, but still...
Conversely, the original ending of the Will Smith film I Am Legend (based on the novel of the same name) was the reveal that the vampires were intelligent, reasoning creatures who were trying to rescue someone whom Will Smith had captured earlier. The reveal that the creatures are intelligent and that he's the monster to them is, you know, the entire point of everything, hence the title I Am Legend.
With all of that in mind, most movies have more than one ending considered. Filmmaking is a very fluid process, and as things progress, the ending can be changed. This brings us to the original ending of the third Star Wars prequel, Revenge of the Sith. Now, the movie itself isn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows as it is. Any movie where a protagonist cuts down an entire room full of kids during what is essentially genocide isn't exactly going to also have a fun musical number with fluffy bunnies in it, no matter how much that might have improved things.
New concept art shows an ending even darker than the original. At the end of the film, Anakin's wife Padme goes to the volcanic planet of Mustafar to confront Anakin about all of the murder he's been committing, and she gets Force choked and just kind of lies there dying while Obi-Wan and Anakin have a half hour lightsaber fight. It's kind of an underwhelming end to a normally intelligent and headstrong character, compounded by her dying of sadness after giving birth.
The art, however, reveals that Padme originally took a more aggressive approach, confronting Anakin not with a whimper of "Anakin, you're breaking my heart!" but rather dressed in blood red robes, confronting the man she once loved with a knife with the intention of slashing his throat with it.
This would have been a much better ending for several different reasons. One, it gives Padme more agency. Instead of just letting whatever happened happen, she takes control of the situation and does what needs to be done. It's a trait that we saw in both Luke and Leia in the original trilogy, so seeing it from Padme would fit with the Skywalker family. After all, she is Padme Skywalker by this point. Two, it fits with the character better, and it shows just how far everything has fallen. It would also have given Natalie Portman the opportunity to really show off those acting chops that she has. It would also have made what Palpatine tells Darth Vader about killing Padme in his anger far more powerful.
It's obvious why this was changed. It could be argued that it was too dark, even for a movie with genocide in it. A lot of people would have likely seen it as out of character for Padme. After all, she still loved him. It could have gone a thousand different ways if they'd actually stuck with it, which would have fleshed out the motivations more. Maybe it would have been her way to remove the evil, leaving her with the memory of the man that Anakin was, while not having to see what he has become.
At the end of the day, however, we'll never truly know what could have been. I suppose that it was too dark to be in a movie with this.
And this.
