‘Rogue One’s Opening Scene Revealed By Director Gareth Edwards
The confirmation that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story won’t begin with the iconic crawl that has opened the previous seven installments to the franchise has left many fans wondering quite how director Gareth Edwards will actually kick-start the blockbuster.
It was assumed that they’d have to wait until the film is released to find out for themselves, but now the English filmmaker has surprisingly opened up about how Rogue One will commence, revealing that it’s actually going to begin with a flashback.
Gareth Edwards made this revelation while talking to My TFI (via Star Wars Net), who straight out asked whether or not the film would begin with an opening crawl. This then provoked Edwards to respond with, “There is no opening crawl.”
But what’s there in its place? Thankfully Gareth Edwards was on hand again to immediately answer that query. Edwards explained,
“But there is a prologue at the beginning of the film that takes place 15 years before the action of the film and that is how the action is exposed. Our film comes from the text of Episode IV. If we give the text, it would be endless. We really had to differentiate Rogue One from the rest of the saga.”
For those of you that weren’t aware, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was inspired by the first two paragraphs from the opening crawl for Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope, which read,
“It’s a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
“During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star, and armoured space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
“Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy…”
During the same discussion, Gareth Edwards also admitted that he found the decision not to use the opening crawl a little frustrating at the beginning of production. Prior warning, while Gareth Edwards gave his answer in English, it was translated and then subtitled in French, which is why it’s a little broken. Edwards admitted,
“At the beginning, yes. But the more I thought about it the more it was normal [to] not have this text. The temptation as a director is to take the most character from other Star Wars [and] put them in this film. The film should last 10 hours. We have to make choices. We must cut, it is a universe [that’s] too rich.”
Gareth Edwards was also quizzed about a few other aspects of Rogue One that have so managed to remain hidden despite the intense spotlight that has been on the film ever since it was announced. These were presented in a quick-fire form, which of course meant that Edwards only gave one- or two-word answers.
After being asked whether Rogue One would include Jedi, Edwards responded, “technically, yes.” He was then asked whether or not Princess Leia was in Rogue One, but he dodged it by stating, “I don’t want to ruin it for people.” Then, when he was quizzed about the presence of R2-D2, he again answered, “I don’t want to ruin it for people.” But the most interesting aspect of these answers is how he responded to the query of whether Luke Skywalker is in Rogue One, as he emphatically responded with a flat, “No.”
Of course we don’t actually have too much longer to wait to find out the answers to these questions ourselves, as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be released on December 16.
[Featured Image by Lucasfilm]
