Highlights from Star Wars Celebration: Rogue One Panel

Just some highlights that I’ve jotted down during the panel that I thought brighten everyone’s day.

– Kathleen Kennedy took special time to remark on Gareth Edwards and how his personal style brings a unique feel to the film. He had a camera on his shoulder for almost every shot and there were many times when he’d run into the action with his camera to capture the feel of what was transpiring.

– On balancing the old and the new, the team made sure to ground the tale in the things that we already know have happened in the Star Wars universe and then to zoom in on a particular moment in time, like the stealing of the Death Star plans, and working to tell the story from within.

– Gareth Edwards favorite moment while filming was in the Maldives where they were filming the planet Scaref. That’s the scene that features the Storm Troopers coming ashore in the earlier released images. The troopers were actually played by soldiers in the Maldives Army, none of whom had ever seen Star Wars or even knew what a Storm Trooper was.

The then went on to release the new poster:

After the release of the new poster, and the announcement that everyone in the room would be getting one, they brought the entire main cast of the film onto the screen and unveiled an amazing behind the scenes featurette that we’ll post in a moment.

On differences between Jyn Erso and previous Star Wars heroes. she’s not a character who is asking who am I and where do I come from. She very much knows who she is, and that’s the driving power behind her actions and motives.

It was also very interesting that she mentioned that her gun belt was inspired by Han Solo. She didn’t reveal if that meant they’d come into contact in the Star Wars universe or if it was just a design choice.

Diego on his character, Captain Cassian Andor.
He says that the story starts with just him and Jyn Erso and grows over the film, but one of the most important people for them is the Droid K2S0 (played by Alan Tudyk) his best friend on the ship.

On what it’s like being a droid on a Star Wars ship, Alan Tudyk said – I’m 7’1″ and black, that’s really my inner person. He was reprogrammed by Cassian and has more free will and more of a free mind than the typical droid. He also talked about meeting Anthony Daniels who asked him if his droid is a suit or CGI. When Tudyk admitted it was CGI, Anthony Daniels called him a shit.

Gareth Edwards revealed that they secretly shot some stortrooper scenes in a subway station in London in the middle of the night.

Riz Ahmed on his character Bhodi Rook – I wanted to do a character where people could see me do more than just shouting. He also went on to admit that his character is a pilot who actually works for the empire and is helping out the criminals on the side.

Donny Wen on his character Chirrut Îmwe, He can’t see, but he can feel the force and he is one of the baddest fighters from his planet of Jedda.

Forrest Whittaker on his character, Saw Gerrera: Saw is a rebel fighter who has been fighting for years against the occupation. He’s a guerrilla fighter who controls a group of rebels. The movie involves different groups of rebels coming together. He’s leading one one of those bands of fighters.

Edwards spoke briefly about meeting George Lucas and showing him the film. Lucas would jokingly criticize the movie just to mess with Edwards and them let him off the hook,

Jalen Erso, Madds Mikkelson said that his character is a person of interest with a lot of things moving around him. He’s a scientist who at one point invented something so beautiful that it might change the universe. He couldn’t go further than that.

Then, they brought back the sizzle reel for another go.

On director Krennic, he’s a different kind of Imperial villain. Mendohlson joked that he’s an Australian kind and they do villainy very well.He also said he’s sexier than some villains, but not as sexy as some of the others. That’s all he was willing to say.

At that point, they surprised the crowd by talking about Darth Vader’s role in Rogue One. Edwards said that he did the voice over work with James Earl Jones just around Christmas.

Then the panel ended with what was probably a trailer, but they showed streaming audiences the featurette for the third time.