Gareth Edwards Says Cut Footage From ‘A New Hope’ Was Used In ‘Rogue One’

Rogue One is already being compared in tone to the original Star Wars films. And now there’s even more evidence as to why it also looks aesthetically similar to A New Hope in particular. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards has revealed that cut footage from A New Hope was used in the new film.

“We went to Skywalker ranch, and there’s the archives there. And as we’re walking around, and doing all the cool things and looking at the Millennium Falcon and trying on Han Solo’s jacket and things like that, in the back at the bottom was all these cans of film. And we said ‘what are they?’ and they said ‘Oh, it’s Star Wars.’ And you go… ‘has someone gone through all this?’ And it’s like ‘not really, they’re not fully like digitized at all.'”

Edwards goes on to explain how the cut scenes were manipulated and worked into Rogue One.

“We got the neg documents and found the clips from A New Hope that hadn’t been used. And there’s pilot photography and lines that were never featured in A New Hope. Through the magic of [Industrial Light and Magic], they cut round them and manipulated them and stuck them into our cockpits. It’s the sort of thing you think, ‘how many people will notice?’ Do you know what I mean? It’s like, is this a lot of effort for very little reward? At the world premiere in LA, there was this massive cheer at a particular point in the film. It was the only time during the premiere where I actually punched the air.”

Rogue One is now playing in theaters.

Source: Radio Times