In an interview with Wired Magazine, director Gareth Edwards reveals how the climactic last scene in Rogue One almost didn’t happen.
Major spoilers ahead for those who haven’t managed to see the film yet.
Rogue One, the first in a planned series of standalone ‘Star Wars Stories’, ends mere moments before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope begins, with Darth Vader slaughtering his way through a hallway full of rebel soldiers. It turns out that the jaw-dropping scene was a last-minute addition, scrambled together when the film was already well into the editing process – around 4 months before the film was due to be released.
As Edwards explains in the interview…
“We were cutting the film together and my editor Jabez Olssen said “I think you need to see one last moment with Darth Vader. I think he needs to have a badass moment” – and we all felt the same way. When he mentioned this it was about four months, maybe, from release, and so we thought maybe we’ve missed the opportunity to do this. And then Kathy Kennedy came in and Jabez pitched this idea to her and she really loved it.”
I think you need to see one last moment with Darth Vader. I think he needs to have a badass moment
“We had three days to shoot this sequence. We just had a brainstorming session like ‘what are cool shots? What little moments do we feel we want to see in here?’, and I really liked the idea of them all being trapped, and that Vader’s going to kill every single one of them, and that potentially the only thing that’s going to escape is the card that Princess Leia gives to R2-D2 [in episode IV]”
It’s amazing to think that one of the most iconic moments in the movie was thrown together at the eleventh hour. Watch the interview below to find out more about how the final scene was put together.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in April.
