In this edition of The Week in Star Wars, Gareth Edwards has been talking about the original Rogue One ending, Frank Oz has seemingly let slip Yoda’s inclusion in The Last Jedi, and Dave Filoni has revealed that Darth Vader and Darth Maul were going to go head-to-head in Star Wars Rebels…
With the home-entertainment release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story fast approaching, director Gareth Edwards has been talking about the original ending to the Anthology movie, and why they decided to change it up in reshoots: “I think the main thing that changed at the end…what used to happen, and you can get a sense of this in the early trailers, the transmission tower for the plans was separate from the main base on Scarif. To transmit the plans, they had to escape and run along the beach and go up the tower. In cutting the film, it just felt too long. We had to find ways to compress the third act, which was quite long as it was. And one real, fast, brutal solution was to put the tower in the base, so they don’t have to run across the beach and do all of that stuff to get there. That became a decision that eliminated the shots you see in the trailer of the back of Cassian and Jyn and the AT-ATs. That was some of the reinvention that happened. It was all to do with compression…”
…Edwards also talked about the last minute inclusion of the final Darth Vader scene as he slaughters the Rebel Troopers, revealing how it came about: ““He arrives and obliterates the Calamari ship, and then the blockade runner gets out just in time and he pursues the blockade runner. And then [editor Jabez Olssen] was like, ‘I think we need to get Darth on that ship,’ and I thought, yeah, that’s a brilliant idea and would love to do it, but there’s no way they’re going to let us do it. It’s a big number and we had, what, like three or four months before release. Kathleen Kennedy came in and Jabez thought, fuck it, and pitched her this idea, and she loved it. Suddenly within a week or two, we were at Pinewood shooting that scene…”
…It’s been rumoured on several occasions that Master Yoda will be making an appearance in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Frank Oz did little to quell the speculation when asked about the possibility this week: “I feel like I’m a prisoner at war here, and I can only give you my name, rank and serial number,” said Oz when asked about an appearance in The Last Jedi. “To be true to the people who asked me, and they are kind of my family, I have to say I’ve been asked not to talk about it. I love Yoda. I would be happy to talk to you about it at the time they let me…”
…Although Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi and Han Solo (not to mention the rumoured Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi Anthology movies) have put a big emphasis on “legacy” characters, Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta doesn’t believe that will always be the case: ““I think you’ve already seen us get 90% of the way there with Rogue One. Yes you see Leia, yes you see the Death Star and Vader, because those are elements of that story and they belong there, you can’t tell that story without those characters. But for the most part, 90% of that story is completely new characters. Completely new planets and places you’ve never seen before. It’s a Star Wars movie with no Jedi! You don’t see a lightsaber once until Vader pops it out at the end. It doesn’t have any spirituality or mysticism… a little bit through Donnie Yen’s character, but it’s very different DNA to the Star Wars films that have come before it. I really like the fact that we tried to do something different…”
…If you’re in London any time soon, you may want to check out the Star Wars Identities – The Exhibition at the O2, and Flickering Myth’s Thomas Harris was invited along this week; you can read his review here…
…Darth Maul ventured to Tatooine in last night’s Star Wars Rebels, in search of vengeance against his old foe Obi-Wan Kenobi in ‘Twin Suns’. If you’re yet to see the episode you can check out a batch of images here, along with a sneak peek clip from the episode here, and the official Rebels Recon breakdown here. Meanwhile, check out Chris Cooper’s review of last weekend’s ‘Double Agent Droid’ here, and we also have a trailer for this coming Saturday’s two-part finale ‘Zero Hour’ here…
…It turns out that Darth Maul almost didn’t make it to the third season of Rebels, as Dave Filoni originally intended for him to be killed by Darth Vader in the season two finale: “So originally in that episode you were gonna get Vader fighting Maul, Vader would have killed Maul, and then fought Ahsoka. It just became unwieldy. There were too many storylines, and there isn’t enough emotional material between Vader and Maul. It’s more of a fan fiction fun thought that they fought. The emotional drama was really between Vader and Ahsoka. So we decided to let Maul live…”
…Darth Maul is also back in comic book form this Wednesday with the release of the second issue in Marvel’s series, and you can take a look at the preview here…
…And finally, Hot Toys has also unveiled its upcoming 1/6th scale Death Star Gunner from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope; check out the official promotional images for the collectible figure here.
That’s all for this week – may the Force be with you.
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
Originally published March 19, 2017. Updated December 16, 2019.
