“Rogue One” director Gareth Edwards addresses why the “Star Wars” film needed reshoots, and it makes total sense

The latest Star Wars movie, Rogue One, hits theaters NEXT WEEK. We’ve been waiting for this movie for literally all our lives (okay okay, fine, like a year), and we’ve been excitedly tracking the movie. And that’s why, we were a little bit nervous when we learned that earlier this summer, Rogue One went through extensive reshoots. That’s usually not a good sign for a film — especially a big, budget Star Wars film — and needless to say, hearing that, we were kinda worried.

But never fear, the Rogue One reshoot #drama a lot of hullabaloo about nothing. The film’s director, Gareth Edwards, recently talked The Los Angeles Times about Rogue One, and Star Wars in general. He addressed the rumors about the reshoots – finally putting to rest the speculation that the film was in trouble.

“What happened was that I’d say a third of the movie or more has this embedded documentary style to it, and as a result we shot hours and hours and days and days of material," Edwards explained. "Normally when you put a film together it goes together like A-B-C-D-E and you move on. Whereas we had so many permutations, so many different ways it could be constructed, it took longer in the edit to find the exact version.

It makes sense: Many films have a solid shot list and follow that, but Rogue One isn’t your typical film. It’s the closest thing we have to a Star Wars prequel. Says Edwards, “We’d always planned to do a pickup shoot but we needed a lot of time to figure out all this material and get the best out of it. So that pushed the entire schedule in a big way.”

Luckily, Disney liked the early footage and supported Edwards. They gave the film the ability to do more visual effects shots, which obviously meant more work.

Actor Riz Ahmed, who plays Bohdi Rook, says, “There were a ton of reshoots… I think it’s because they really care — and hopefully that’s something that shows when people see the film.

We’ll see if he’s right, when Rogue One lands in theaters next week (!!!!). It’s not like we’re counting down the minutes or anything.

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