Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Concept Artists Reveal Surprising New Details

Joe Schmidt

02/05/2017 12:17 pm EST

The first anthology film in the Star Wars universe released a few months ago and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was a hit at the box office.

While presented as a standalone story, the film served as a quasi-prequel to the events of the first Star Wars film ever made, Episode IV: A New Hope.

Director Gareth Edwards and the production team had established framework in which they could create the narrative and designs, but the team was surprisingly crafty and imaginative in their approach.

Speaking at an event for Gosh Comics in London on Friday, members of the concept artist and costume design teams spoke with fans during a question and answer session to promote the release of the new The Art of Rogue One book. Hyperdrive collated the information (via SWNN).

The group attending the event included Matt Allsopp, Vincent Jenkins, Adam Brockbank, Will Htay, Jon McCoy, Glyn Dillon, and Dave Crossman.

The team provided many new details about the film's production and design work, revealing key insight into one of the best new additions to the ongoing Star Wars saga.

Check out the slideshow to find out more.

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is written by Gareth Edwards and written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, from a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta. The film star Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

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Darth Vader

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

Work on the final Darth Vader scene was done right up to the wire.

The artists were working on more sketches while they were shooting the scene nearby.

The finished scene is one of the most memorable in the entire film and presents Darth Vader as the menacing, unstoppable badass that fans have always wanted to see onscreen.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

Scarif Citadel

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

They confirmed that a lot of material was shot for the film without finding a home in the finished product.

They also said that some designs took months of work, only to be completely redone within the span of hours.

The citadel on Scarif was one such design.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

AT-ACTs

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

Instead of the more recognizable (and larger) version of the AT-ATs, the group originally created designs for "Crab-Walkers."

The CRAB-ATs were transport vehicles that resembled crab-like creatures, but then they hedged back and decided not to go all out on new designs.

Hence, the movie received the AT-ACTs.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

Rings of Kafrene

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

The place where Cassian Andor meets (and kills) the Rebel spy who sets off the mission was influenced by another Harrison Ford film.

Blade Runner inspired the designs of the Rings of Kafrene, the trading post where we first meet Diego Luna's character.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

While the work of Ralph McQuarrie is essential to any Star Wars film, he wasn't the only artist whose work they referenced.

They referred to Joe Johnston as "the forgotten hero" of Star Wars.

The team credited Johnston's work, saying that Johnston and McQuarrie bounced ideas off of each other to create the language of the the franchise.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

Hovertank

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

The team revealed they did not want to create the Empire's hovertank with computer generated effects.

They also didn't have the budget to make one. So, they compromised.

They built their own out of an existing tank that looked similar to their design.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

Making Models

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

They create a lot of their work with pinewood, they said, and that they still rely on models of their designs.

Two model makers would help craft versions of their designs as they would work them out. The mocks would then inform how their designs would appear in the real world.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

Jungle and Ice Planets

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

Snowtrooper designs are in the book but aren't in the film. They almost made the cut as as the film was planning to shoot on location in Iceland, but removed the Hoth-like ice planet.

The designers revealed that Forest Whitaker's character Saw Gerrera was going to be on a different planet with jungle terrain. Both were cut.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

More Information

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

Some more minor tidbits include that the director Gareth Edwards worked closely with the artists, and that many designs saw various changes.

Baze Malbus' design, however, was good from the beginning.

They also said many of them worked on both the Force Awakens and the Last Jedi, and are currently working on the new (untitled) Han Solo film.

Some of them even appeared as extras in a few scenes. So now they can update those resumes and IMDB credits.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters.

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