The original ending to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was very, very different

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Photo / Supplied

Three months after Rogue One hit cinemas, one of the movie's scriptwriters has lifted the lid on how it was originally supposed to end.

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead.

As most people know by now, everyone in the Rogue One team dies in the end during the process of getting the Death Star plans.

But that wasn't always the case.

Writer Gary Whitta told Entertainment Weekly that in the first script, they'd had two of the crew making a daring escape - because of concerns Disney wouldn't go for the dark ending.

Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is Rogue One's troubled young hero. Photo / Supplied

Those survivors would have been Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor (Felicity Jones and Diego Luna.)

"There were a lot of casualties on both sides, in both versions of the scripts," Whitta explained. "We were constantly trying to make all the pieces fit together. We tried every single idea."

The original storyline would have seen Jyn and Cassian lifted off the Imperial planet.

The transfer of the Death Star plans would take place on that ship, which was destroyed by Darth Vader and the two rebels would be ejected in an escape pod, just like C-3PO and RD-D2 in the original Star Wars movie.

Stormtroopers from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Photo / Supplied

Sadly for those characters, both Whitta and his successor on the project, Chris Weitz, felt the whole team needed to die in keeping with the movie's strong sense of sacrifice.

Despite the tragic plot, Disney didn't interfere, and the Rogue One ending remains the darkest of any others in the Star Wars franchise.