Gareth Edwards directed “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” which released back in 2016, the first “Star Wars” spin-off film and one of the better received of the Disney “Star Wars” movies to date.
The production also famously underwent five weeks of reshoots with “Andor” creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy taking over to re-write parts of Gary Whitta’s script and oversee the additional filming after Edwards had delivered his early cut of the movie.
This led to years of questions about how much of the final work was from Edwards, and how much was from Gilroy. It also made people wonder just how many of the scenes were reworked or excised by Gilroy in the reshoots.
Actor Ben Mendelsohn, who played Director Orson Krennic in the film, previously teased there were up to twenty or thirty scenes with “enormously different renderings” than the final film.
Gilroy himself didn’t mince words, telling Brian Koppelman back in 2018 that when he came onboard: “They [Lucasfilm] were in such a swamp … they were in so much terrible, terrible trouble that all you could do was improve their position.” That said, Gilroy hasn’t gone into specifics and said earlier this year the film that ended up in cinemas was “the best possible version of the project”.
Now Edwards, out promoting his first film since “Rogue One” with “The Creator,” was asked his thoughts on the controversy and mystery surrounding the “Star Wars” spin-off film’s making by Variety. Edwards diplomatically avoids discussing Gilroy’s involvement directly, saying he was grateful for the opportunity:
“Look, the only thing I can say is I was incredibly lucky. I got to make a Star Wars film. I won the lottery, in that sense. The idea of someone as privileged as me in any way implying that it was anything other than the amazing experience that it was to some extent – like, I don’t have any empathy for that person, and I don’t want to be that person either.”
Separately he tells Uproxx there is one person who doesn’t get enough credit for the film – the franchise’s founder George Lucas:
“I do think there’s a lot of conversation about Rogue One and me and everything. And I honestly feel when I watch Rogue One, the person who doesn’t get enough credit is … George Lucas. Everything that’s great about that movie, you can pretty much trace back to George.
And even the Darth Vader scene that lots of people talk about? I can’t take credit for it. Because it’s all George. You know what I mean? And if you see, it’s not a character from my film, it’s Star Wars. And we got to play in that sandbox for a bit and so I wouldn’t complain about any of it. I’d do it again if I had a time machine.”
Gilroy has gone on to create “Andor” which serves as a prequel to “Rogue One,” and has been praised by critics and fans with a good portion of the fanbase calling that series the best “Star Wars” screen work since the original trilogy.
