Luminara Unduli and her one time Padawan learner Barriss Offee are definitely fan favorites. They showed up in EPISODE II, lingering around Palpatine's office here and there, and then popped up in the execution arena scenes on Geonosis. Since then, they've appeared in everything from books to comics to the Clone Wars cartoon series on Cartoon Network.

Unfortunately for Luminara, she only shows up in one quick shot in EPISODE III, a long shot of her talking to some troopers during the Kashyyyk scenes. At least she got one shot in. Poor Barriss Offee never made it to the screen.

For EPISODE III, the role of Luminara was played by Art Department Supervisor, Fay David and not by the original EPISODE II actress (in most shots) Mary Oyaya. She was only needed for one shot so it was easier to use David.

The shot you see in the final version of the film shows Unduli standing in a semicircle of troopers presumably discussing battle plans and such. It appears that this was used as an extra establishing shot, adding some time to the battle prep scenes. One could assume, however, that during editing, Lucas took her Order 66 shots and moved them somewhere else, removing the actual killing shots, just to add some color to another part of the film. The script and in the Comic Adaptation seem to reinforce this idea but the shot in the film has the Wookiees preparing for battle and not stacking up destroyed droids:

---

136 EXT. KASHYYYK-EDGE OF VILIAGE-DAY
The battle appears to be over. WOOKIEES stack destroyed Droids while CLONES assess the damage to their equipment. A Jedi, LUMINARA UNDULI, talks with EIGHT CLONE OFFICERS standing in a circle around her. Suddenly they reveal their hidden pistols and blast her before she can react.

---

Take a good look at the still from the comic and then take a look at the scene in the film. They look quite similar, don't they? Did Lucas originally want to use this to show her death and then alter it to be used as an establishing shot? Is there footage somewhere of Fay David performing a death scene as Luminara Unduli? Maybe, but we'll have to wait and see what surfaces over the years.

The picture below is from the EPISODE III Comic Adaptation.

Add to del.icio.us	Digg it	Submit to reddit.com	Submit to Blinklist	Seed on Newsvine	Submit to Furl	Submit to Spurl