Rogue One Director Gareth Edwards Breaks Silence on Reshoot Rumors and Tony Gilroy Controversy
Once again, Rogue One's Gareth Edwards has hit back at long-standing rumors that he was replaced during production.
With Solo: A Star Wars Story's production being a notorious disaster and Rogue One failing to capture those massive The Force Awakens numbers at the box office, there have been rumors about behind-the-scenes strife for years. In a new interview, Rogue One director Gareth Edwards pushed back against those rumors, which he called "total inaccuracy." One of the biggest rumors -- that Tony Gilroy was brought in to finish the film after Edwards started sparring with Disney -- is something Edwards particularly denies, saying that while Gilroy's input was valuable, he didn't direct the movie, with Edwards handling things all the way up until the Darth Vader stinger.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was distinctive and generated an instant fan base upon its release, becoming kind of the dark horse favorite among Star Wars fans. That reputation has only been enhanced by Andor, the TV spinoff that has drawn rave reviews.
"The stuff that's out there on the internet about what happened on that film – there is so much inaccuracy about the whole thing," Edwards said. "Tony [Gilroy] came in, and he did a lot of great work, for sure. No doubt about it. But we all worked together until the entire last minute of that movie."
"The very last thing that we filmed in the pickup shoot was the Darth Vader corridor scene," the filmmaker added. "I did all of that stuff."
In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, "a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, with Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker. Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel are producing, with John Knoll and Jason McGatlin serving as executive producers."
You can stream the movie now on Disney+. Evans's latest film, The Creator, is now in theaters.