If you’re one of the few who didn’t seeRogue One: A Star Wars Storylast weekend, there will be plenty of SPOILERS below, so be sure to read at your own risk, or just drop everything now and go see it. After the world premiere, many fans called it the bestStar Wars moviesince the original, and the film has certainly lived up to the hype. Since this is in fact a stand alone movie, it is connected to theStar Warsuniverse, but it isn’t exactly required to keep any loose ends dangling to be addressed in a sequel. While many fans praised the ending, directorGareth Edwardsrevealed it almost turned out much differently.
DirectorGareth Edwardsappeared on theEmpire Podcastyesterday, where he shed some new light on the ending. In a bold and surprising move, the film killed off every major character, although there have been hints that this wasn’t always the case. We reported last week thatFelicity Jones' Jyn Erso is under contract to appear in aRogue Onesequel, although there is talk that this option may now be extended to a Luke Skywalker spin-off.Gareth Edwardsrevealed in this interview that an early version of the script didn’t feature the deaths of all these main characters. Here’s what he had to say below.
“I mean, it’s a great Disney tradition isn’t it? For every single character to die in all their movies. I think there was an early version - the very first version they didn’t [die] in the screenplay. And it was just assumed by us that we couldn’t do that and they’re not gonna let us do that. So we’re trying to figure out how this ends where that doesn’t happen. And then everyone read that, and there was just this feeling of like, ‘They gotta die right?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, can we?’ And we thought we weren’t gonna be allowed to, butKathy Kennedyand everyone at Disney were like, ‘Yeah, makes sense.’ I guess they have to because they’re not inA New Hope. And so from that point on, we had the license and I kept waiting for someone to go, ‘You know what, can you just film an extra scene where we see Jyn and Cassian, they’re okay, and they’re on another planet and la la la…’ And [that] never ever came, and no one gave us that note so we got to do it.”
It was rumored that roughly 40% of the movie was altered during thereshoots, with writerTony Gilroycoming aboard to re-work the script. Another report revealed that his role kept increasing on the production, and he ended up taking home upwards of $5 million, for helping supervise the edit with directorGareth Edwards. LucasFilm creative executivePablo Hidalgomaintained in an interview that the ending wasn’t changed during the reshoots, and we don’t have any specifics about how much was changed, or if any of the discarded footage will make it onto the Blu-ray and DVD release, sometime next year.
We did learn earlier today, though, that one of these deceased characters will return in an animated form. LucasFilm announced earlier today thatRogue OnestarForest Whitakerwill return to voice Saw Gerrera in a two-part episode ofStar Wars Rebels, debuting Saturday, January 7 on Disney XD. SinceStar Wars Rebelsis set before the events ofRogue One, it may offer some additional insight into this important character, who received training from Jedi’s Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano, and served as an early harbinger of the Rebel Alliance, an assortment of disparate groups coming together to fight for a common cause. WithRogue One: A Star Wars Storyexpected to continue dominating at the box office over the next few weeks, hopefully we’ll continue to learn more about thisStar Warstale.
