Star Wars Rogue One Director Responds to Reshoot Concerns

In May, reports emerged about reshoots for Disney's first-ever Star Wars spinoff movie, Rogue One, leading some to believe the film was in some way in trouble. Now, director Gareth Edwards has responded, saying the reshoots--which are commonplace in film--were planned from the start.

"I mean, it was always part of the plan to do reshoots. We always knew we were coming back somewhere to do stuff," he told Entertainment Weekly. "We just didn't know what it would be until we started sculpting the film in the edit."

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Reports suggested the reshoots were done to "lighten the mood." Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who is a producer on Rogue One, said the movie's tone and story is not changing.

"There's nothing about the story that's changing, with a few things that we're picking up in additional photography," she explained. "I think that's the most important thing, to reassure fans that it's the movie we intended to make."

Edwards added that he thinks concerns over Rogue One's reshoots were "blown out of proportion a little bit." He's also now increasingly skeptical of the internet.

"It's funny, making a film stops you believing anything you've ever read on the internet," he said.

In related news, Michael Clayton and Bourne screenwriter Tony Gilroy has reportedly been brought on to help assist in the reshoots. Gilroy and Edwards worked together on 2014's Godzilla.

Even Disney CEO Bob Iger has chimed in on Rogue One's reshoots. He recently told THR: "I've seen Rogue One. I've seen not only an edited picture but I've seen significantly more footage than was even in that picture. That's actually going to be a fine film."

Also in the interview, Kennedy talked about the "war movie" tone of Rogue One and how it won't be like anything you've seen from Star Wars before.

"He does a lot of handheld, intimate, close-up work," she said about Edwards. "That's not something you've necessarily seen in a Star Wars movie before." Edwards added that he sees the movie as having a "dark tone" compared to the main saga movies.

Zero Dark Thirty cinematographer Greig Fraser is working on Rogue One. The Kathryn Bigelow-directed movie about the hunt to find and kill Bin Laden was nominated for an Oscar.

We also learn in the interview that Disney has not decided if Rogue One will have the famous opening crawl that explains some of the story. "We're right in the middle of talking about that," she said.

The full EW article is filled with many more fascinating details. Go read it here.

Rogue One comes out in December, with the next saga movie, Episode VIII, landing in 2017. After that, a standalone movie focusing on young Han Solo will premiere in 2018.

In other news about Rogue One, we recently learned that Darth Vader will appear in it. Additionally, a batch of new images were released, while the names and more details for the cast of characters were also shared.