Rogue One: Highlights from Director Gareth Edwards Reddit AMA

Rogue One’s director Gareth Edwards muddled through the internet hub that is Reddit and spoke candidly about Star Wars. Here are the highlights.

As a Star Wars fan, you probably walked into Rogue One thinking one of two things. Either the film was totally going to suck and you had to wallow in your misfortune as the franchise struggled to bounce back to its The Force Awakens glory. Or you were riding the hype train in first class with a drink in your hand and a smile on your face, both excited to finally watch the movie and thrilled to return home and talk about how great it was.

Whichever camp you found yourself in, hopefully you left the theater pleased with what Gareth Edwards tried to do. All the interviews leading up to the film’s release painted Edwards as a Star Wars fanatic who was just bringing all of his childhood dreams to fruition.

Now three months after Rogue One‘s release and less than a month away from the Blu-ray release, Edwards’ excitement hasn’t changed. Of course, at Disney’s request, he answered some Reddit AMA questions.

And so here are some of the highlights:

"From WCHS-WARRIOR: What inspired you to become a director?I saw Star Wars, found out it was a lie called filmmaking… figured the second best option in life would to become a liar, and make films… Then you learn about the job called directing, mainly from Steven Spielberg’s success, so all those late 70’s early 80’s films are to blame for me getting into this crazy industry."

That particular anecdote, which he’s shared several hundred times is still one of my favorite things.

"From Starkiller100:What was your favourite easter egg that made it into Rogue One, and did you have any input on the inclusion of them?I’m very bias… But my cameo would be my favorite… I don’t want to give it away, but let’s just say he was probably the savior of the entire rebellion 😉"

The Redditors go on to explain that Gareth Edwards appeared at the end of the film as one of the rebel soldiers aboard Princess Leia’s ship who launches the ship. Obviously, no one noticed because we were all looking at digital Princess Leia. Plus, they all wore those goofy helmets.

"From JanMichaelVincent16: Hey Gareth! Big fan of Rogue One, Godzilla, and Monsters, so glad you decided to do this!My question is: was there anything cut out of Rogue One that you’d like to put back in?There are millions of things that I would like to have put in the film… unfortunately films are only 2 hours long, so many ideas fall away before the final release… I guess if we had another 10 years to finish the film, the final version would evolve even more. The goal is to make sure the version that goes out into the world is the best possible version. So in that sense, no real regrets 🙂"

Gareth really likes his smiley emojis.

"From bantuwind:Will we ever find out what the changes and reshoots were behind the scenes of Rogue One? From the first promotional material to the final cut of the film, it’s pretty clear a lot changed during production.Lots of great shots were grabbed during filming, some of them were specifically designed for a sequence, others were just opportunistic. Marketing end up falling in love with things that might fall away during the post production of a film, and also might help strengthen others. I’m just glad they found a way to get into the world."

Admittedly, I want the entire world to stop talking about reshoots. Spider-Man: Homecoming just started their reshoots and I don’t hear anybody worrying about how the movie must be falling apart.

"From demonicfurby:Hi Gareth, If you had to add an opening crawl to Rogue One, what would you have it say?Gary Whitta actually wrote one in the first draft. You’ll have to pester him for it 😉 …I do believe that those opening crawl words are actually floating out there in space somewhere. We just have to fund NASA well enough so their deep-space telescopes can find them, lets crowd fund it and make it happen."

Confirmed: an opening crawl exists somewhere.

"From viti100:Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?No, sorry, I hope he gets well soon."

That one just made me laugh.

"From About5Hobos:Hello Gareth, Loved Rogue One! If you could pick one character from your spinoff movie to do a spinoff about them which would it be?Mads and Ben… Galen and Krennicor Baze and Chirrutor maybe it would be cool to see what happens to the Death Star plans, and if the rebels manage to actually blow-up the Death Star, that would be a cool movie!!!"

I’d love a bromance spinoff between Galen and Krennic.

You can buy Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on DVD/Blu-ray on April 4.

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