Rogue One: A Star Wars Story star Diego Luna reflects on the film's challenging production. Released back in 2016, Rogue One told the story of a band of Rebel fighters who plan to steal the blueprints for the original Death Star from the Empire. This film added another perspective to the events that occurred in A New Hope, delving deeper into the stories of those under the radar, and paving the way for the likes of Leia, Luke, and Han. Luna is currently starring in Rogue One prequel series Andor, serving as an origin story for his character, Cassian Andor.
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Rogue One ultimately proved to be a success, grossing $1 billion at the worldwide box office and earning widespread critical praise. Some consider it to be the best Star Wars movie in the Disney era. However, things didn't always go so smoothly for Rogue One. Its production notoriously featured extensive reshoots, as Andor creator Tony Gilroy was brought in to help retool the third act. In the end, everything worked out, but in the moment, things proved to be chaotic for those involved.
In an interview with The Guardian, Luna looked back at the production process for Rogue One, while praising Gilroy for coming on board for rewrites and reshoots. This resulted in an added complexity to Cassian, which may not have existed without Gilroy’s input. Although reluctant at first to comment about the film’s arduous process, he went on to comment:
“Making Rogue One was difficult, challenging and confusing sometimes. But films finish when they finish. I’ve been in so many projects where you think things are going exactly the way they should, then it turns out not to succeed. The struggle of finding what each film needs, and how to do it, is unique. Every decision made in Rogue One ended up being right because I’m proud of the result.”
Did Rogue One's Challenging Production Make It A Better Film?
As an initially risky film, Luna also mentioned that Rogue One is an example of a project that found its result through trial and error, sometimes to get to a destination that all will be happy with, there are multiple routes to take. Regardless of the initial difficulties that the Star Wars prequel faced, it received very positive feedback on release, from both critics and audiences, as it drew deep on pre-existing mythology as well as added more context to the franchise’s narrative. Sometimes it would seem that a film guaranteed to succeed at the box office is a surprising flop, whereas Rogue One, with all its reshoots and apparent confusion behind the scenes, ended up as a triumph.
In modern-day cinema, creatives are always trying to go above and beyond to make the best film they can for audiences. This often means that reshoots and rewrites take place to better the quality of the final product. Regardless of how messy this seems, if this process improves the film, there should be no issue with how the destination is reached. Now with Andor adding further context to Luna’s character from Rogue One, it could be argued that the success of the prequel is improved tenfold as the viewer can finally understand what led Cassian to the Rebels, as well as his untimely death. Both stories ultimately lead to the events of the original Star Wars trilogy adding wider context to the universe and the growing lore of a galaxy far, far away.