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Disney yanks rumored 'Last Jedi' royal stormtrooper clip

It's a royal bummer for those who were hoping to spot Prince William and Prince Harry in a deleted Star Wars clip that briefly circulated.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
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These random stormtroopers will have to fill in for Princes William and Harry, since we still have no official image of them from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."

Lucasfilm

Weren't they a little tall to be stormtroopers?

British princes William and Harry played Imperial stormtroopers in a small scene in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," but their battle royal never came to our theaters. 

John Boyega, who plays Finn, revealed the royal roles back in November, but in a crowning bummer of a move, later said the princes' scene was cut.

On Thursday, a YouTube clip began to circulate of a deleted "Last Jedi" scene involving Boyega, co-star Kelly Marie Tran, and numerous stormtroopers in an elevator.

A stormtrooper recognizes Finn as FN-2187, his original trooper name revealed in "The Force Awakens," quizzes him as if he's going to betray him, but then turns it into jokey patter. The joking stormtrooper is believed to be actor Tom Hardy, Deadline and other media outlets reveal, and two of the stormtroopers behind him are supposed to be the princes.

It's a tense little scene, but Disney hasn't officially released it for free online viewing, and was quick to have the video removed from YouTube.

disneydeletedscene

This is not the YouTube scene you're looking for.

Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

I watched the scene while it was available, and while it's tense and a bit funny to see Finn recognized, there's no way to tell if the helmeted and armored troopers standing silent are really Charles and Diana's two sons. 

But if you buy the Blu-ray when it comes out on March 27 (I own the digital version and didn't find the scene there), here's what to do. Freeze-frame the deleted scene called "Mega Destroyer Incursion -- Extended Version," when Finn faces front with a lineup of troopers behind him.

The trooper on the far left is believed to be William, with Harry right next to him, and Tom Hardy next to Harry. Don't bet the keys to the Millennium Falcon -- or the Crown Jewels -- on it, but that's your royal rumor of the day.

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