Considering the troubles it had in production, that Lucasfilm’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” holds together as well as it does is an achievement.
The first of the “Star Wars” spin-offs, it and Rian Johnson’s ‘The Last Jedi’ are certainly the best looking “Star Wars” films visually since “The Empire Strikes Back”. ‘Rogue One’ also offered a more mature take on the material than what had come before, paving the way for “Andor”.
The film famously was directed by Gareth Edwards who helmed the film throughout production with the movie “virtually completed” nearly a year out from release.
Then Disney hired Tony Gilroy to direct reshoots and rework aspects of the film, changes extensive enough to earn him a screenwriting credit as multiple plot points were added and a whole new ending was done in reshoots.
The film’s most talked about scene though sees Darth Vader ambushing Rebels trying to escape Scarif, using the Force to body slam them and his red lightsaber to cut a bunch of them down – making the character quite intimidating again.
Seven years later, talk began this morning that this scene was apparently the live-action directorial debut of “Star Wars Rebels” creator and “The Mandalorian” executive producer Dave Filoni.
Freddie Prinze Jr. revealed Filoni’s apparent involvement whilst on the Lights, Camera, Barstool podcast this week. Prinze Jr. indicated that Filoni guest-directed the scene where “Vader comes through and you see basically what’s going to happen in ‘A New Hope.'”
Prinze Jr., who regularly voices Kanan Jarrus/Caleb Dume across various “Star Wars” animated works, says Filoni also recast the actor under the Darth Vader suit saying: “Darth Vader doesn’t talk with his hands, but this one clearly does.”
What’s confusing here is Filoni earlier this week revealed to THR that while he had visited the set of “Rogue One,” he didn’t get to actually play around with live-action cameras until visiting Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
In the wake of this, Umberto Gonzalez at The Wrap seems to have cleared up what happened saying Filoni was definitely involved with the creative side of planning the sequence but it was second unit director Simon Crane who actually filmed the scene.
Filoni meanwhile made his official directing debut on “The Mandalorian”.
Dave Filoni directed the ending sequence of Rogue One featuring Darth Vader according to Freddie Prinze Jr.
"Maybe I'm not allowed to say this… Dave Filoni directed that scene in Rogue One where Vader comes through and you see basically what's going to happen in A New Hope" pic.twitter.com/eJeGHu0eRi
— Lights, Camera, Barstool (@LightsCameraPod) March 1, 2023
