Riz Ahmed Almost Played A Different Character In Rogue One

Contains spoilers for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

It's beginning to sound like the final version of Rogue One could've been very different.

The same week we learned that writers had worked on a plan for a much happier ending, K-2SO almost met a different fate, and Cassian Andor almost had a crazy backstory, Riz Ahmed–who plays Bodhi Rook–told Entertainment Weekly that he nearly played an entirely different character.

"His name was Bokan, and he was actually Saw Gerrera's engineer, living on a planet with a strong electromagnetic field, which meant that electronics were never working," Ahmed said. "He was actually an Imperial engineer who had been kidnapped and kind of had Stockholm Syndrome. He had been living there for so long, he kind of lost it, like Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now."

Even after Bokan was turned into Bodhi, that's not where the possible changes end. Ahmed said Bodhi was supposed to have an elaborate death scene, different from the one in the movie, and he even filmed it with co-stars Donnie Yen (who plays Chirrut) and Jiang Wen (Baze Malbus). In the theatrical version, Bodhi dies from an explosion in a cargo ship.

"There was actually this one shot that was about a minute long, and it was basically Bodhi ducking and diving from Stormtroopers to try and like get the plug to where he wanted it to go while Donnie and Jyn, when Chirrut and Baze were kind of flanking him," he said. "Every time he'd get sprung by a Stormtrooper, Donnie would come out and 'bang!' Then they would go down, and then Bodhi would have to crawl and jump over somebody, just to be caught again. Then Chirrut would pop up. It was almost, kind of an extended slapstick comedy sequence. When he was running into the ship, he was shot and badly injured. He has to crawl his way back onto the ship."

While it all might sound like a lot to take in, Ahmed said he was happy with the way things turned out. Director Gareth Edwards also told EW that Ahmed's character is basically what they always intended. "Even though we changed the literal character, that underlining concept stayed intact," Edwards said. "We thought it would be stronger if he wasn't Saw Gerrera's guy, but instead he knew Galen. Those sorts of things changed, but the desire for them feels similar."

The digital release of Rogue One arrives tomorrow (March 24), so there's still time for more behind-the-scenes tidbits to emerge. We'll let you know.  Meanwhile, check out a few moments in the movie that only true fans understood.