Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, has done fantastically well in its short time in cinemas. It has received high praise among critics and fans, along with an impressive $400000000 already in the box office.
Its story has both answered questions and given us so many more. One of the main questions though is why the trailer differed so much from the film.
The first trailer for Rogue One featured scenes and speeches not seen in the film. The famous “What will you do if they catch you?” of Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) speech never made it to the final cut.
A few weeks ago it was confirmed that the film seen in theatres was very different to its original idea. In the book “The Art of Rogue One a Star Wars Story” it was revealed that Jedi were supposed to make an appearance in the film.
The Jedi weren’t all wiped out during the events of the third film and some did manage to survive even into the time period of the original trilogy. So there was a possibility of them showing up.
Screenwriter Chris Weitz explains this further, “For a long time in the story, there were Jedi around, even if only in the background. Jyn’s mother was a Jedi,… But we thought it would be more interesting to have a story without Force powers, without lightsabers. We could explore a period of broken faith, a galaxy without hope,”
Designer Doug Chiang also commented on this stating that; “The fact that there’s no Jedi is what makes Rogue One so unique. There’s beauty in empowering people and in not relying on magic or superpowers… And yet, there’s the underlying mythology of the Force that’s still pervasive throughout our story.”
Another major difference was the ending.
SPOILER ALERT.
We all remember that horrific ending where all the characters lost their lives during the siege and destruction of Scarif.
Well when speaking with Empire, Director Gareth Edwards explained how different the ending could have been.
“The very first version, [the characters didn’t die]… And it was just assumed by us that we couldn’t do that. ‘They’re not going to let us do that.’ So I was trying to figure out how this ends where that doesn’t happen. And then everyone read that and there was this feeling of like, ‘They’ve got to die, right?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, can we?’
We thought we weren’t going to be allowed to but Kathy [Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm] and everyone at Disney were like ‘Yeah it makes sense/ I guess they have to because they’re not in A New Hope.’ And so from that point on we had the license.”
It does make sense when you think about it; there is little mention of how the Death Star plans were actually acquired, and the characters are also never mentioned in the films.
It would be nice to see the gang again, but I suppose it makes sense why they died.
The next film in the Star Wars Saga, Star Wars Episode 8, will be released on 15th December 2017.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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