This “Star Wars” planet was named by a Starbucks barista

The “Starbucks barista messed up my name” story is a classic. Most of us have had the experience of looking at the scrawl on your cup and thinking, “Really?” But most of us haven’t turned Starbucks flub into Star Wars canon.

But Star Wars: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards took a Starbucks mishap and turned it into movie canon.

In an interview with CNN, Edwards spilled a lot of tidbits about the making of Rogue One. When it came time to name the film’s planets, he left a lot of that to Gary Whitta, who helped write the film’s story. Then Whitta asked him to name the film’s final planet, and Edwards hit a wall. While mulling over other options, he headed to Starbucks to think. Then inspiration struck, in the form of his name… kind of:

I go over to get a coffee from Starbucks. I'm thinking, "What could be the name? It could be this. Maybe we could use that?" Then at the very end, she gives me the drink and they must have asked my name and I must have said, "It's Gareth," but they heard "Scarif." They wrote Scarif on the cup and I was like, "That sounds like 'Star Wars.'"

Classic. In that moment, the film’s beach world Imperial base received its appropriately rigid and strange name. And Edwards left a rather personal stamp on his Star Wars legacy.

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