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The Cruel Fate of Shaak Ti
June 20, 2005
Just by virtue of being Force-wielding guardians of peace and justice, every Jedi character in the prequel trilogy has a fan following of some sort. This makes Order 66 a bitter pill for some, as their cherished heroes get roasted by blaster-fire from their once-loyal clone troopers. But there's a greater indignity than getting shot in the back by your lieutenant; it's getting cut from the film altogether.

So, looking back at some of the earliest Set Diaries, there's an unasked question lingering over the reports of Barriss Offee, Luminara Unduli, Bultar Swan and Shaak Ti undergoing makeup tests: "What Happened?!" A thing to keep in mind about the diaries published before the start of principal photography: much of the crew in Sydney was working off an approximation of the shooting script.

It wasn't working in the dark, exactly, but the picture of what Episode III would finally be was definitely murky. As the shooting script was coming together, Heads of Department were kept apprised of the storyline as it affected them. They had already set up shop in Sydney, and the pressure was on to produce with their staff and assets -- they couldn't just sit around, after all. So, all manner of tests -- makeup tests, camera tests, costume tests, etc. -- were well underway in May 2003 to be as prepared as possible for when actual production began.

A printed chart of headshots labeled "EPISODE III JEDI" could be found tacked to the walls of the Hair and Makeup Department and the Creature Shop as I covered each of these test sessions. Sixteen Jedi were featured on the chart, not all of which made the final cut.

Shaak Ti has the dubious distinction of being cut from the film twice. Originally, she would have been referenced in a line of dialogue during the opening space battle, a rarity when you think about it. No screen Jedi outside of Qui-Gon, Yoda, Mace, Obi-Wan and Anakin has been identified by name in the prequels.

ANAKIN: The last message we had from Master Shaak Ti, she was still with the Chancellor.
OBI-WAN: She's the most cunning of Jedi. She's even shown me a few tricks. They won't catch her.

ANAKIN: Artoo, trace Shaak Ti's homing signal!

Artoo's scan produces the command ship on Anakin's scopes, the one "crawling with vulture droids," and then the film weaves into now-familiar territory. But in the script and during production, Shaak Ti continued to be referenced in place of the Chancellor, until Obi-Wan and Anakin discover her in an abandoned corridor, sitting strangely despondent on the floor.
That was shot on Tuesday, August 19th, 2003, the 37th day of shooting. Stage 1 housed the "wide hallway" set for the Trade Federation cruiser, the same set doubled as the stretch of corridor where Anakin, Obi-Wan and Palpatine get caught in Grievous' ray shields (which was shot the same day).

It was easy enough to feel bad for Shaak Ti that day. She was so passive and broken, sitting on that grimy floor, with General Grievous towering behind her in our imaginations. Making her all the more sympathetic were the huge black contacts that actress Orli Shoshan had to wear while filming to complete her alien look. Orli had a hard time refraining from tearing and blinking while wearing them, something that George Lucas and John Knoll felt confident they could reduce in post if necessary.

Duncan Young, the off-screen dialogue reader, stood in as Grievous, standing atop an apple box behind the seated Shoshan. He read Grievous' dialogue with a snarl, coached by Lucas to approximate actor Lionel Stander's vocal qualities. "Shaak Ti," says Grievous, "your lightsaber seems a little battle-worn. It will need considerable cleaning, but it will do the job."

There's a sharp intake of air from Shaak Ti as she arches her back. Grievous has stabbed her through the heart. Her body slumps and Anakin and Obi-Wan turn grim.

"It was something I thought was great," said Concept Artist Ian McCaig at the time. He, along with Derek Thompson, helped to develop the sequence in preproduction through storyboards. "It's a way of introducing Grievous the way Vader was introduced to us, when he strangles that Rebel officer. You know he's a bad guy,"

But the opening sequence aboard the cruiser was running too long. It was taking too much time to get into the meat of the story -- the story of Anakin's fall -- so Lucas excised much of the serial-type hi-jinks. Shaak Ti was a victim of those cuts, and all reference to her at the start of the film were removed. She was spared a grisly death.

Shaak Ti tenaciously continued to cling to life. While the artists at Cartoon Network were developing the Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series, they thought to explain her absence from the start of the film by having her die in at Grievous' hands in their series. This was rejected; there was something about the image of Shaak Ti convulsing as a lightsaber speared her heart that stuck with Lucas, and she again faced an unseen executioner in front of cameras a few months later.

During the pick-up shoot at Shepperton, Shoshan was scheduled for a single scene of shooting. She traveled from Australia to London to brave the makeup process again. The scene was eerily familiar, but instead of sitting on the floor, she sat on one of the thick disc-like ottomans Jedi have in their private quarters (Knoll would refer to them as big wheels of cheese). The slatted window-shade casts a film noir shadow on her. Hayden Christensen, wearing his dark hood up, steps into frame. "What is it, Skywalker?" asks Shoshan. There's no answer, other than a stab in the back.

It took many takes to satisfy Lucas, something that was profoundly felt by much of the crew since it was the last day of a very busy two weeks worth of shooting. Much of that morning of September 3, 2004 was dedicated to Shaak Ti's demise. But for all that effort, it was cut from the movie (it did make it into the novel, though).

Ultimately, this murder raised more questions, and was incongruous with the preceding shots of Anakin marching up the steps of the Jedi Temple with a column of clone troopers. Surely troopers weren't waiting patiently at the door while Anakin killed Shaak Ti, but if they were storming the temple, why was Shaak Ti meditating? How did she not know that her brethren were dying just outside her door? Ultimately, it didn't work cinematically, but that's what editing is for.

For those who wonder, the long lead-times of toy and merchandise production is what accounts for Shaak Ti being featured in Episode III product despite her minimal presence in the film. She is in the movie... just briefly. When Yoda confers with a holographic Jedi Council while on Kashyyyk, Shaak Ti is among one of the tiny tabletop projections. In this case, she was played by ILM Production Manager Maria Brill, shot against bluescreen while sitting in a Jedi Council chair. A look at the webcam archives pulls this up at January 6, 2005, 11:03 a.m.

I know what you're thinking... Set Diaries? But the movie's already out! True, but now's the time to talk about the things I couldn't talk about before, the "Untold" Set Diaries of Episode III. I can go into detail that I wasn't permitted to back in 2003, and explain a lot of questions fans may have regarding Revenge of the Sith. Keep an eye out for updates throughout the summer.