Star Wars: Rogue One Director Initially had Negative Reaction to Film’s Plot

At the time of its release, Rogue One upset the Star Wars status quo. It marked the first time Lucasfilm considered live-action film spinoffs from its primary franchise, showcasing on-screen the mission first talked about in a movie decades prior. In a recent interview with StarWars.com celebrating the film’s fifth anniversary, Rogue One director Gareth Edwards admitted he wasn’t entirely sold on the concept of showing the Rebels and how they retrieved the Death Star plans.

Edwards said that idea of the film was tampering with “hallowed ground.”

“I sat down, opened just a page or even a few paragraphs of description, and there was this one idea which was very, very cool and very good, but it wasn’t for me. I just felt like I’m not the guy to do that,” the helmer told the website.

He added, “And then there was another idea as well, which obviously turned out to be John Knoll’s concept for a Star Wars film. I started reading it, and I was like, ‘Okay, where is this going? What is this? Hang on, hang on.’ And then the last paragraph, it all tied in with A New Hope. I had this love-hate relationship instantly where it was like, ‘They can’t do this film! They shouldn’t do this film, this is like hallowed ground, you can’t! You’re not allowed to!’ And the other part of me was like, ‘Wait a minute, am I being considered for this? I have to do this! There’s no way I can walk away from this. But hang on, no one should do this, but I have to do it!’

That’s when Edwards said he wrote back to then-Lucasfilm executive Kiri Hart, making sure the idea was one Lucasfilm wanted to do. As the director himself puts it, the studio was certain in the direction it wanted to go.

“I was really torn. I wrote back to Kiri saying, “I think this would be an amazing idea for a Star Wars film, but are you seriously going to do this? Or is it just like, spaghetti at the wall kind of stuff?’” he concluded. “And she was like, ‘No, no, no. This is what we want to do, potentially next.’”

What other Star Wars spin-offs would you like to see? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat!