What Could Have Been / Star Wars Resistance

• Dave Filoni originally conceptualized the show as a story inspired by The Right Stuff and Robotech, taking place in the outskirts of the Galaxy, but not always set in the Sequel Trilogy.
  • The show also originally focused primarily on racing, but Brandon Auman persuaded him to eventually phase it out to avoid repetition.
• Brandon Auman wanted to include characters like Finn and Rose, though like with Ventress (detailed below), the show avoided featuring too many popular guest stars as the writers knew that viewers would focus more on them rather than the show-original cast.
• Tam was supposed to be a background mechanic, but the crew loved her character design so much that she became a member of Team Fireball.
• Synara San, one of Kragan's pirates and a recurring character, was conceptualized as both a Weequay and a green-skinned Mirialan, before they decided to keep her Mirialan but make her the first purple-skinned member of the species.
• CB-23 was originally named BB-23, but they thought that having two droids named "BB" in the same episode would be too confusing, so she was renamed as a nod to Carrie Beck from the Story Group.
• Flix's species, the Gozzo, were originally called the "Juzzums" as a nod to the Yuzzums developed for Return of the Jedi.
• Liam McIntyre originally gave Commander Pyre an English accent as with other Imperial and First Order characters, but was told to use an American accent.
• According to Sumalee Montano, Agent Tierny's name was different on the audition scripts, but that may have been to prevent spoiler leaks.
• According to this interview (8:30), the idea of going to Batuu was considered (possibly in connection with Yeager's family photo). It would later be stated that Varkana in "The Missing Agent" and "Breakout" was originally meant to be Batuu, but was changed due to difficulties in production.
• Shortly after the release of the reveal trailer, a mysterious blurred "Poster A" was found hidden on the official Star Wars website, apparently for Resistance. Though an unblurred version was never released, though a Concept Art from the Team Fireball promotional video highly resembles it. From what we can tell, the cast is standing in front of the Colossus's Doza Tower while an X-Wing and the Fireball fly overhead, though only Kaz (in orange clothing), Poe, and BB-8 are identifiable — the other characters don't seem to resemble anyone in the final product. It's likely that this "Poster A" was concept art too, but was either forgotten about or was not approved to be released to the public (unlike The Clone Wars and Rebels, Resistance was very tightlipped on concept art for whatever reason).
• According to Brandon Auman, Kel and Eila were always hinted to be Force-sensitive to the point that one scrapped episode would've focused on Force healing, but this was always toned down during the editing process and eventually led to them being Demoted to Extra in Season 2 as Filoni didn't want them to overshadow the story as it was supposed to focus on ordinary civilians.
• Mika Grey was originally conceptualized by Dave Filoni as an older, surviving Asajj Ventress, and there was even a discussion early on of having her fight Kylo Ren! However, Filoni scrapped this as well as he knew bringing back such a popular pre-existing character would steal the spotlight.
• Auman proposed an episode featuring Ewoks and Endor, as he was quite fond of Return of the Jedi. However, Filoni was hesitant, as Episode IX was in production and they didn't know if it was going to explore Endor and the Ewoks in a different way than Resistance would have intended. Auman cites this as one example of how Resistance was restricted by the Sequel Trilogy's writing.
• "The Children from Tehar":
  • The episode was originally listed as "The Runaways".
  • After Kaz and Neeku hear about the runaway kids, there were scenes of them asking around the Colossus about any sightings of the kids, such as going to Flix and Orka's and the Admissions Office. Since this didn't add anything and slowed down the episode, it was cut.
  • The Ugnaught merchant that Kel and Eila steal food from was originally supposed to be a recurring character.
• "The Platform Classic": Han Solo was originally considered as the famous racer who came to the Colossus to compete in the race, given his known involvement with racing in other canon works. They eventually decided to make the racer Yeager's brother both so that the story was more personal, and because they were concerned that Han's presence would overshadow all the other characters.
• "Dangerous Business" was originally going to have Team Fireball working on repairing Bo Keevil's Yellow Ace.
• "Descent":
  • Originally, Commander Pyre was going to question Tam.
  • Tierny was an admiral in the first draft, before they turned her into a security agent for the second.
  • The scene where the pirates intercept Kaz's message was originally at the end of the episode, but was moved to immediately after the message is sent out, feeling that ending the episode with Kaz's resolve instead was stronger.
• "No Escape, Part II":
  • In an early cut, there was a scene with Recurring Extra Garma where Kaz ran into her during the corridor-flooding sequences, and she pinched his cheek and called him "an adventurous one".
  • Originally, Aunt Z and Hype's return was unheralded, before they decided to better set it up by having Neeku receive a transmission from her.
  • When Captain Doza frees the Aces, the original version of the scene had Griff working out by doing pull-ups, and Freya complaining about him, saying "Do you know what it's like to be stuck in a cell with Griff for three days?"
• "Into the Unknown":
  • The episode originally started with Kaz in the marketplace weathering complaints from concerned citizens who blamed him for the situation. Later drafts started with Bucket and CB watching the hyperspace tunnel. Not until the final edit did the episode open with the First Order at Castilon, a scene that was originally placed later in the episode.
  • The scene where Kaz bumps into Opeepit in zero-G was originally conceived as him colliding with Bolza Grool, who was trying to round up a bunch of free-floating gorgs.
• "A Quick Salvage Run":
  • At one point, Kaz and the pirates were going to fight off First Order sentry droids in the wreckage of the dreadnought.
  • In an early version of the episode, Neeku was going to say that his ideas about pirates came from him hearing stories about them robbing the rich and giving to the poor.
  • An extra obstacle of the coaxium cartridge not fitting into the Colossus' fuel chamber was cut to save time in the third act, which was already very fast-paced.
• "Live Fire":
  • Lieutenant Galek's name was "Jimes" in an earlier version of the script.
  • Earlier versions of the story had some of Aunt Z's patrons betting on the outcome of the training missions, with Neeku involved.
  • The jakoosk was known simply as the "ice creature" in early development. At one point it was a thranta, a creature based on old Ralph McQuarrie designs, before evolving into something scarier and uglier. Before it was finally named the jakoosk, it was briefly named an "ice brith".
• "Hunt on Celsor 3":
  • A joke where Bolza Grool mentioned he was out of gorgs, leading to Flix and Orka hiding their pet Bitey, was cut.
  • An early draft had Kaz buying the blaster cannon from Flix and Orka using Torra's money since he's always broke, before it was simplified to a project abandoned by Tam.
  • One cut gag was that jakoosk meat actually tasted terrible, although Bolza Grool enjoyed it. They decided to allow the Colossus a gastronomic victory instead.
• "The Engineer":
  • In an early cut of the episode, Neeku accompanied Kaz and Synara when they went out to Nena's ship, and Neeku would have been dumbstruck on first seeing her.
  • Kaz was originally going to run into Gork the Gamorrean when he was sneaking around in the pirates' hangar, and Synara would come to the rescue by punching Gork out cold, but then demand to know what Kaz was up to.
  • The episode originally ended with Kaz asking Neeku about bantha herding, leading to Neeku going on about it at great length.
• "From Beneath":
  • The earliest outline began with the Colossus running out of fuel and getting stranded in the Tammuz sector, which prompted the mission to Drahgor III.
  • In an early version, the elevator fell not because of rubble falling on it, but because of Orka sneezing.
  • The earliest cut had Flix singing about his dream of becoming a cantina singer, instead of just saving the story for another time.
• "The Relic Raiders": Mika was originally going to explain that the relic was a powerful weapon that belonged to an ancient Sith Lord.
• "Rendezvous Point":
  • In an early version of the episode, Tam would have been piloting the TIE fighter that was chasing Kaz in the opening battle. And later, Tam and Rucklin would have been the ones to disable Venisa's X-Wing.
  • Venisa's astromech droid was named "Scorch" in the earliest outlines, before the name was eventually changed to Torch.
  • The episode's writer, Jennifer Corbett, originally intended for Venisa to successfully reunite with Doza and Torra on the Colossus at the end, but Filoni taught her that not all stories should end happily immediately and that some should end bittersweet but hopeful.
• "The Voxx Vortex 5000":
  • Vranki was originally named "Janki". He was also originally going to wear a hat before it was changed to a Lando-style cape.
  • Concepts for the sole patron at the casino included having her be a Gilliand or a Lasat (one of which looks identical to Chava).
• "Kaz's Curse":
  • Originally, Hassk pirate Vusk was the one who put the curse on Kaz, before they changed it to Leoz the Nikto.
  • Earlier scripts called the curse the "Curse of Mavala" or the "Curse of Aka Du". One version of the story had the curse definitely be real, but Mika found it easier to remove if she let Kaz think it was fake.
  • The talisman was at one point said to be something Mika found on Mimban. Another version of the story had it be a doll that Eila was missing.
• "Station to Station":
  • The Titan was originally going to have the exact same geometry and layout as the Colossus, but there was some concern that it would be too confusing during the actual episode, so it was changed to a distinct First Order version to keep the ships similar, but still unique.
  • An early version of the story had Kaz having to butter up Hux and appeal to his ego to get past him during their early encounter. However, a slow, seething anger related to the Hosnian Cataclysm was deemed to be more appropriate.
• "The Missing Agent" & "Breakout": The setting was supposed to be Batuu, but was changed to the show-original world Varkana to make production easier, seeing as the productions of the show and the park were concurrent.
• Season 2 had episodes placed later in the season that were scripted but were cut due to needing to focus on Tam's arc. This is why there are missing episodes according to the production numbers and why Season 2 is slightly shorter than Season 1.
  • In one episode, Ax Tagrin would've returned to infiltrate and take over the Colossus, and Doza would've had the spotlight.
  • In another episode, Maz would've guest-starred, being an old friend of Mika Grey from when they were pirates together. The two planned a heist to steal an ancient relic from a space station about to crash into a star, and at the end, it would've been revealed that the relic is an ancient text that Maz was going to give to Rey. This text would've contained information about Force techniques such as Force healing.