5 Troubling Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Rumors You Need To Know

Star Wars: The Force Awakens may very well have been the most highly anticipated movie of all-time. While some fans ended up being disappointed by J.J. Abrams' decision to pay homage to A New Hope in such a strong way, it was undoubtedly a critical and commercial success, but there's one major downside to that: how can future Star Wars movies ever top it? Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is certainly going to try, but the odds seem to be stacked against it, especially as this is Disney and Lucasfilm's first "anthology" movie filling in the gaps at various points in the franchise's history. Many moviegoers seem to think that it's actually Episode VIII, while hardcore fans remain sceptical about the necessity of a film telling the story of how the Rebels stole the plans to the Death Star, especially when we obviously know how that ends. Normally, none of that would matter too much, but Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been generating a lot of headlines in recent months for all the wrong reasons. Regardless of the intriguing story and amazing cast, there are a lot of conflicting reports out there, but the vast majority seem to point to the movie being a mess along the lines of Fantastic Four and Suicide Squad. Whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen, but what you'll find here is a look at the five most troubling Rogue One: A Star Wars Story rumours, and why they matter. 5) As Much As 40% Of The Movie Has Been Reshot Reshoots are normal for any film these days, though it's become common for them to make headlines depending on just how much of the movie is essentially being redone. In the case of Fantastic Four, 20th Century Fox would try to pass them off as being no big deal and an expected part of the process, something which was shown not to be the case when the critically panned movie was released and it became clear around half of it had been reshot. It's more than a little worrying then that reports have pointed to as much as 40% of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story being changed. It's been said that the cast and crew would have to work six days a week for eight weeks on thirty two recreated sets to get the extensive reshoots done on time, with the main reason for them taking place being to bring the tone of Gareth Edwards' dark and gritty war movie more in line with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. One of the most exciting things about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the fact that it would be so different to what's come before, but if it really has been toned down to hit those all important four quadrants, that could lead to disappointment. 4) Disney Isn't Happy With The Tone As I mentioned in the previous entry, it seems like one of the biggest problems behind the scenes of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been Disney dissatisfaction with the movie's tone. Studio executives felt like it was simply too different to previous instalments of the franchise and that it lacked the feel of what is perceived to be a "classic" Star Wars movie. However, that was supposed to be the point of these anthology releases, as Kathleen Kennedy has said on numerous occasions that they want to use them as a way for filmmakers to bring something new to this world. Alas, it seems like a full on war movie was just too much for Disney, hence why those reshoots were ordered to address the serious tone and, "restore a sense of fun to the adventure." When you think back to the way a movie like Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was criticized for not being "fun" enough, you can understand where they're coming from, but does Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - a tale about a desperate group of Rebels trying to find a way to destroy a weapon of mass destruction - need levity? Apparently so, but who knows how these tones will now mesh. 3) Gareth Edwards Isn't Directing The Reshoots Of all the worrying rumours listed here, this may just be the worst. While reports that Christopher McQuarrie had been brought in to rewrite the script for reshoots were quickly denied, multiple sources have since stated that Tony Gilroy not only supervised story changes, but actually directed the new scenes being filmed. Any time a movie is taken out of the hands of the original director, it's undeniably concerning, and while neither of his previous films were perfect, it's hard to imagine that Monsters and Godzilla helmer Gareth Edwards could have done anything bad enough to justify this treatment. Of course, if he wasn't willing to compromise his artistic vision to create the family friendly and lighter toned Rogue One: A Star Wars Story the studio wanted, that would explain why this happened. Why would he put his name to a movie taken out of his hands and made into something he didn't want it to be, you ask? Well, just look what happened when Josh Trank spoke out against Fox before Fantastic Four was released He hasn't lined up any projects since and lost the Star Wars movie he was set to direct. Edwards speaking publicly about this could potentially kill his career. 2) Han Solo May Have Been Shoehorned In A particularly interesting rumour which has been doing the rounds is that one of the main reasons Disney ordered those reshoots is because they wanted to add a cameo appearance from Alden Ehrenreich's young Han Solo. While them utilizing the same sort of connectivity as the Marvel Studios movies may not seem like a bad thing on the surface, shoehorning the character in for the sake of it is a horrible decision, especially as there's really no reason for Han to be involved with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He'll be there for the sake of it in the hope it will generate interest. Is that a smart business decision? Sure. Whether or not it's best for this franchise is another matter though, especially as solo movie for Han already feels wholly unnecessary. When you throw in the fact that this movie includes a character from The Clone Wars and the ever expanding amount of novels and comics which tie into the story, the current Star Wars Universe is already running the risk of becoming as convoluted as the EU. A cameo from Han Solo may seem harmless on the surface, but if these rumours are correct, it could set a worrying precedent for future spinoffs. 1) It Won't Be As Good As Star Wars: The Force Awakens As of right now, there hasn't been any word on screenings of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but that hasn't stopped a number of sites from revealing that they're not hearing some troubling things about the movie. The general consensus appears to be that it simply isn't as good as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and that's something which deeply concerns Disney. Regardless of the complaints and comparisons to A New Hope, Abrams' film grossed over $2 billion worldwide (only the second film in history to do so) and was generally loved by critics, so Rogue One flopping would be a huge disaster. Simply put, the studio can't afford to have their first Star Wars spinoff earn a "Rotten" score and fail to earn upwards of $1 billion. It's this fear of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story not living up to The Force Awakens which has seemingly led to many of the changes mentioned in previous slides being made, hence why extensive reshoots have taken place to bring the two releases closer to each other in tone. If Disney is afraid to take risks with these movies as they look to re-create the success of the TFA, we may very well have years of inevitably inferior efforts to look forward to. While we wait for more updates on the film to surface, be sure to drop us a comment with your thoughts and if you haven't done so already, take a look at the video below to start getting familiar with some of the characters you'll be meeting once Edwards' movie hits theatres.