Hot off the presses and onto the interwebs, yet another batch of images for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story have found their way online, this time offering a peek behind the scenes of Gareth Edwards’ militaristic spinoff.
Arguably the most interesting pick of the bunch is the still image of a helicopter capturing the maritime action as a small squadron of Rebel fighters storm the beach. Doubling down on relatively low-key battle sequences, Entertainment Weekly notes that Edwards is adopting an approach that injects a visceral intensity to Rogue One that we arguably haven’t seen in the Star Wars universe to date.
In related news, EW also quizzed Edwards about those hotly contested reshoots. Singing from the same hymn sheet as Mads Mikkelsen, the filmmaker conceded that overhauling a handful of scenes was always in the cards, and the entire process was blown out of proportion.
“I mean it was always part of the plan to do reshoots. We always knew we were coming back somewhere to do stuff. We just didn’t know what it would be until we started sculpting the film in the edit. Obviously, you’ve got to work around everyone’s schedule, and everyone’s on different films all over the world, and so it’s a bit of a logistical nightmare. That’s why I think it’s been blown out of proportion a little bit.”
Whatever way you come down on the matter, Edwards’ ragtag crew of outlaws and bandits consists of Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), Rebel fighter Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), Alan Tudyk’s droid K-2SO, and the villainous Imperial leader Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). There’s also roles for Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn’s father and James Earl Jones, returning in his iconic role of Darth Vader.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – phase two of Lucasfilm and Disney’s franchise revival – will make a beeline for theaters on December 16.